Owls Are Good at Keeping Secrets: An Unusual Alphabet

Animal characters with idiosyncratic traits are the subjects of O’Leary’s sweet and silly alphabet book. Grant illustrates in a quiet, fetching style: for the letter H, a hedgehog points a telescope toward the stars: “Hedgehogs can’t help being curious.” For I, a homesick iguana sits wide-awake at a sleepover. Elsewhere, a narwhal contentedly paints a self-portrait on the surface of an ice floe: “Narwhals can be perfectly happy all alone.” Other animals include toads, which “are terrific at tongue twisters”; voles (they “always want just one more book”); and wolves, which “don’t like being told to smile” for photographs. Readers won’t learn factual details about the animals, but they will happily play along with O’Leary’s funny fibs. Ages 3–7. [em](Dec.) [/em]