Reviews: (by author)

A Is for Astronaut: Exploring Space from A to Z. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2006. 0-8118-5462-0. $14.95. www.chroniclekids.com

There’s no author for this brilliantly layed-out and illustrated alphabet. I imagine it was done collaboratively by the Art Dept. at Chronicle, and done well it is. On large glossy pages, predominantly one page to one letter, are three or four examples of, say “D”: Dinner, “Dirty Snowball (a comet),” Discovery. Wonderful archive photographs or lively 1950-60-ish illustrations by Steve Vance occupy large spaces on the attractive pages. Occasionally, a breath-taking double-page spread, for example for “E—Earth,” “U—Universe,” and “Z—Zoom.” I especially admire the design and juxtaposition of the “N” and “O” pages. This is a substantial, eye-catching book.

A. Allison, June 2007

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