Explore the ins and outs of A to Z in an educational setting in this innovative picture book from the Caldecott Honor–winning creator of Alphabet City and A Is for Art.

Imagine a school. Any school. Be it your school, one from memory, or even a dream school. Then enter and embark on a journey of wonder and delight. Look closely. There’s a letter C in the curve of a globe, a little L in the handle of a pencil sharpener, or at recess, a vibrant yellow V in a geodesic climbing dome.

Can you find the letters on every page?

From inside the classroom to outside on the playground, Caldecott Honor artist and author Stephen T. Johnson renders the ordinary extraordinary with timeless imagery, inviting us to reexamine and rediscover our schools anew, and to find beauty and joy in the most unexpected places. Harking back to his first book (the Caldecott Honor–winning Alphabet City, rev. 11/95), Johnson shows the shapes of letters in everyday scenes, this time within a school, concentrating solely on letterforms rather than on words that begin with those letters. The illustrations (described on the copyright page as “monoprints on paper with digital enhancement”) have a grainy texture that gives them a softer, more handmade appearance than those in Johnson’s previous books. Each highly detailed image shows the letter standing out clearly but naturally, a balance of discovery and ease. The viewer is meant to solve a double puzzle on each page: what part of the school is the picture showing, and where is the letter? So, a stepladder forms the letter A, and is found in the library; a twisty slide forms the letter S, on the playground. Any child who knows his or her alphabet will be able to easily identify each letter, but a few of the locations are harder to decipher (and there is no answer key appended). The letter X is the weak link in this offering, possibly showing two dandelion stalks crossing each other on a playing field. This worthy companion to Alphabet City is likely to inspire a few students to discover and document their own local alphabets.