T Is for Trails: A Hiking Alphabet

Gr 1-3–Bringing to the forefront trail hiking, a rapidly expanding hobby for families, this is a welcome addition to the growing number of the publisher’s alphabet books. As with previous titles, the titular idea is the hub from which each letter is a spoke pointing outward to explore more fully the focus, exploring trails in this case. Included here are fun hiking activities and necessary safety tips for newcomers to the trail. The explanation of trail signs and common hiking etiquette are particularly useful concepts to cover for the full enjoyment of these outdoor activities. Using real National Parks as the illustrated settings for each letter highlighted allows for both the expansion of ideas in the exploratory texts on the sidebar as well as literal exploration for intrepid park adventurers. Even though this text is wordy in some places, readers will be familiar with this format that allows for scaffolded enjoyment of the text through the textual placement and page designs.