Gabby

PreS-Gr 1—Gabby is cleaning up her playroom when she drops a book, tumbling the letters onto the floor. She sees "a 'c' on the carpet…, an 'a' on her armchair… and a 't' on the table." She sounds them out and gets a cat. She spells out the word "fish" to feed the hungry feline. Then more letters spell out "bird," and to end the antagonism between the animals, Gabby makes the word "friends." Ultimately, they all sit down together to read. The story is slight, but it invites participation and encourages prereading and beginning-reading skills. Gabby is an appealing caricatured poppet with wild red hair, big glasses, and an oversize, oval-shaped head. The illustrations switch between full-color, framed pages and those in which Gabby and a few props bounce around a stark white background. The effect encourages page turns and reflects the action of the story. The colored artwork is heavily textured, as if painted on a canvas surface, while the white backgrounds are smooth and flat, emphasizing the art. Letters bounce everywhere and a small green frog appears on each page. The book ends with two pages of activities ranging from letter games to instructions on drawing Gabby. While not a necessary purchase, the book will serve to promote reading skills in a painless way.—Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT