\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rebeccaruppresources.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/letter-perfect-200x300.jpg\") <\/td>\n | David Sacks\u2019s Letter Perfect<\/i> (Broadway Books, 2004) is the \u201cmarvelous history of our alphabet\u201d from the Phoenecians to the present day. Included are general information, a family tree of world alphabets, many alphabetic charts, photographs of artifacts, and 26 informative chapters, each devoted to a different letter of the alphabet. Find out how letters got their shapes, why some letters have multiple sounds, and why X marks the spot. For teenagers and adults.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rebeccaruppresources.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/alphabet-juice-200x300.jpg\") <\/td>\n | Roy Blount\u2019s Alphabet Juice<\/i> (Sarah Crichton Books, 2009), arranged A to Z alphabet-style, is an info- and anecdote-filled overview of words and letters. The enormous subtitle gives you a sense of the content: \u201cThe Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics, and Essences; With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory.\u201d For teenagers and adults.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n POSITIVELY WICKED ALPHABETS<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rebeccaruppresources.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Z-was-zapped-227x300.jpg\") <\/td>\n | Chris Van Allburg\u2019s The Z was Zapped<\/i> (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1987) is a clever play in 26 acts, in which each letter \u2013 appearing in black-and-white on a curtained stage \u2013 has something (generally awful) happen to it. A, for example, is caught in an Avalanche, B is Badly Bitten, K is Kidnapped, Y is Yanked offstage with a crook. And you can see by the title what happened to Z. A creative read for ages 4 and up.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rebeccaruppresources.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/uncle-shelby-ABZ-233x300.jpg\") <\/td>\n | By Shel Silverstein, Uncle Shelby\u2019s ABZ Book<\/i> (Touchstone, 1985) is a wickedly funny alphabet book supposedly for adults only. (\u201cMeet Ernie, the giant who lives in the ceiling. Ernie likes eggs. Catch, Ernie, catch!\u201d) My kids found it hilarious. For all ages, depending on sense of humor.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rebeccaruppresources.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/the-gashlycrumb-tinies-cover_result-copy-285x300.jpg\") <\/td>\n | In Edward Gorey\u2019s rhyming The Gashlycrumb Tinies<\/i> (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1997), a succession of Victorian children come to sad, bad ends, from Amy (who fell down the stairs) and Basil (assaulted by bears) to Zilla (who drank too much gin). My macabre children adored and memorized it. For a wide range of appropriately twisted ages. In our house, it was found hysterical by age 7.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n| <\/td>\n | Also see Gorey\u2019s Thoughtful Alphabets<\/i> (Pomegranate, 2012), a pair of grimly hilarious 26-phrase stories (“The Just Dessert” and “The Deadly Blotter”), both running from A to Z. (\u201cApologize. Bewail complications.\u201d)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rebeccaruppresources.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/K-is-for-knifeball-300x300.jpg\") <\/td>\n | By Jory John and Avery Monsen, K is for Knifeball<\/i> (Chronicle Books, 2012) is a rhyming A to Z collection of truly terrible advice, supposedly directed at (but not really for) kids. B is for Blender. F is for Fire. You can see where this is going.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rebeccaruppresources.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/What-I-Hate-Chast-245x300.jpg\") <\/td>\n | In Roz Chast\u2019s What I Hate From A to Z<\/i> (Bloomsbury USA, 2011), a cartoon compendium of miseries, B is for Balloon (\u201cimminent explosion\u201d), C is for Carnival, G for General Anaesthesia, and S for Spontaneous Human Combustion. For teenagers and adults. Make one of your own. Think therapy.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n | | | | | | | |