AlphaOops!: The Day Z Went First

This book is highly overrated. The letter Z acts too angry, and if you're teaching your children phonics, the words that represent some of the letters are incorrect. For example, "xylophone" is used for "x" instead of a word like boX or foX; the letter "o" has the word "owl" with it instead of a short vowel word like "octopus;" the letter "e" should have a short vowel sound word too, such as elephant, but the word "Earth" is used; "unique" and "unicorn" are used for "u," along with "umbrella" (which is the only phonetically correct example); and the letter "a" lists a ton of words that start with that letter but do NOT demonstrate a short "a" sound, like angel, artichoke, author, artist, acorn, airplane, etc. The concept of "Z" going first is creative and fun, but I would not have purchased this book if I had known it was riddled with so many errors. I wanted to use this book for preschool instruction, but now I can't, since it would only confuse young learners when we review the sounds of each alphabet letter.

I purchased this book when my daughter was around three. We were just learning the abc song and other nursery rhymes. After reading this the first night my daughter asked me "Why do we HAVE to sing abc? I want to sing CZQ!" She was totally serious too. She started mixing up the order of the alphabet and having fun with letters. I truly think it helped her learn them faster by encouraging her to enjoy learning and be creative and fun when you do things. We went on to purchase the follow up book as well (Alpha Oops! H is for Halloween) and thoroughly enjoyed that one too. I hope some day that the author will release more books featuring other holidays and seasons.

Illustrations weren’t great
A lot of words jumbled on pages
Somewhat long for typical four year old attention
I like multiple vocabulary words for some letters
That was about all

Not a huge fan

Has its place in the classroom
Surround little ones with letters
Read again and again

Or better yet, rewrite it your way with your words ...

This is an absolutely adorable book and my five-year-old is crazy over it. The artwork is detailed and wonderfully whimsical and the story line is hilarious. There is another in the series, and I'm desperately hoping she writes more of these. The language is spot on for smart preschoolers and easy enough for early readers to handle by themselves, but parents will actually delight in reading this one over and over and OVER again. (One night we went through it four times.) A very fun book by an extremely engaging and talented author. Buy this one for your child's library.

This is an absolutely brilliant children's book, completely breaking the mould for ABC primers, with a clever premise and a vibrant, richly multi-layered presentation that can give hours and hours (indeed, years and years) of reading pleasure. The premise is simple -- that the letter "Z", tired of always coming last, stages a little coup and insists that they do things backwards, and let him go first for once. "A", who was just about to do the same old "is for apple", isn't happy about the disruption, but lets it happen anyway, and then the fun begins. Maybe Z has a point, but once you break the rules one way, there's no telling what might happen next... And sure enough, all the other letters want to do things *their* way, too -- some start doing more than one word, which makes other letters unhappy, and they start trying to top each other, and going in completely random order. Chaos rules, and even Z starts to get irritated and confused.

Meanwhile, we readers have a total blast -- the bright, colorful artwork is as playful and anarchic as the text, packed with countless sight gags and fascinating details -- just the kind of thing little kids can really dig into. And since each letter gets their own cameo, there are a lot of opportunities for adult readers to do funny voices, etc., as well as have great dialogs with their kids about what's going on in each picture.

Easily one of the best children's books of the decade... Highly recommended. (ReadThatAgain!)

Lovingly drawn book with a funny story about letters who don't want to do what they've always done but be different for a change. My five year old niece and nephew absolutely didn't like the chaos that ensued (they are only now learning the correct alphabet order, so they shouted at the letters that they were doing it all wrong), but we had lots of fun reading the book again and again!

My son loves this book. His name starts with Zarek's and he tries to rearrange the alphabet all the time. He not takes this book with him to school to show his class mates and his teacher. It's his favorite, even above star wars and marvel.

We bought the book from Alethea at Dragoncon for my son a few years back. He still loves it. First it was just looking at all the bright colors and and now that he is oldet he love to follow along on all the fun the letters had. He has yet to this day grown tired of it. I myself find it cute and love reading it to my 3 year old.

My daughter adores this book! She laughs at the antics that Z and some of the other letters get up to! When Z decides he is tired of being last in the alphabet and wants to be first craziness ensues! This book has become a favorite in our house!

This book is SO hilarious! Very silly and clever. I got it when my son was four and now he's five. It's one of our many favorites. The letters come in all out of order and they argue about who should go next, and at the end on the last page they are still all jumbled up. The story ends and then we play the game we invented of "find the letters in order." It takes a few minutes because the illustrations are really detailed. We won't get tired of this one any time soon.

I thought this book was utterly confusing. Yes, the letters went out of order, but they were arguing, and the story was just kind of stressful. There wasn't a "delightful" or funny or amusing part of the book. It was just kind of a shambles. The pictures were colorful. But I also thought as a parent, I'm trying to teach my child letters, and the letters were sideways and diagonal and all over the place. It's not a good book to learn the alphabet, they are just some of the characters in the book. Sorry for such a negative review. I did like the idea of Z going first though.

My almost-two year old loves this book. He "reads" it to himself in the car. One day I kept hearing "Uh Oh!' from the back seat and was worried until I realized he was looking at the page showing the letter B dropping lots of blue balls and causing chaos. A fun concept with great illustrations to match!

What a wonderful book! Kontis does a beautiful job of describing each letter as a unique individual who functions within the wild and wonderous Alphabet "family." The writing is clever and charming, and the story will keep children (and parents) giggling from beginning to end. Indeed, AlphaOops is sure to both teach and delight.

This is one of my daughter's favorite books, possibly only beat out by Alpha Oops H is for Halloween. http://www.the store.com/AlphaOops-Is-Halloween-Alethea-Kontis/dp/0763639664

Great intro to letters, especially great for letter recogintion since they are out of order. Daughter loves that the letters are characters, and that they have a sense of humor!

I bought this book for my youngest nephew's birthday, and I almost kept it for myself. I love the way that each letter has its own character that comes through in the text and illustrations. It really is a fun way to teach kids the alphabet - "A" doesn't always have to go first!

This is absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt THE best new children's book out! I love books that are not only great for children but entertaining for adults as well and this Clever, Funny book is for ALL AGES! It will most definitely be a classic and a must have for years to come. I LOVE IT!!!!

MY GRANDCHILD ALETHEA WROTE THIS CHARMING AND CLORFUL BOOK FOR CHILDREN AND WHEN I SHOWED IT TO MY DENTIST WHEN I WAS THERE YESTERDAY HE PROMPTLY ORDERD HIS SECRETARY TO GET A COPY FROM the store FOR HIS OFFICE.GUESS WHO IS ONE PROUD GRANDMOTHER?

As I am Alethea's father, you'll probably believe me when I say that I have now read Alpha Oops more than five times. Each time I read it, I marvel that besides being a unique alphabet book, it offers a learning experience for living and coping as a member of society. Chaos ensued when every alphabet letter insisted on having its own way, but order returned when the letters realized the best way to resolve their conflict was through communication and compromise. These are important messages that need to be learned at an early age. I wish Alpha Oops had been required reading at my last place of employment!

The publication of Alpha Oops follows the release of Alethea's popular science fiction anthology, Elemental--a book whose total proceeds benefits victims of the Tsunami. Alethea's unselfish donation of time, talent, and money to this worthy cause will make her success with Alpha Oops one that we can all agree is well-deserved.

One REALLY proud Dad

George Kontis