Discovering Nature's Alphabet

Publishers Weekly

When Melville wrote about nature's "cunning alphabet," he meant it metaphorically: humans, he argued, see in nature only the lessons they seek. But husband-and-wife team Castella and Boyl have discovered a literal alphabet in the natural world, and they present its examples in 92 lovely full-color photographs. The images span the grand (set against a backdrop of the Grand Canyon, twin branches of a juniper tree form a Y) and the minute (the vein of a yucca leaf curls into a Q), the ancient (the O of petrified wood) and the brand new (the curving G of a mangrove seedling). Leaves, corals, branches and shoots form most of the letters, though there are icicles shaped like an M, a gecko curled like a P and an inlay of quartz that looks like a U. The text is rudimentary and encouraging-the sort of thing that adults should ignore unless they are reading to rapt children: "Nature holds a secret world filled with hidden letters. The best way to find them is to slow down and explore." Though it's sweet and simple, this is also the sort of book that might spur its readers, young or not, off the couch and into the great wide readable world. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 2 Up-Castella and Boyl have assembled a portfolio of photographs of natural objects that form individual letters of the alphabet. From beaches to deserts, they discovered letters large and small in vines and flowers, tree trunks and seedpods. The minimal text urges readers to undertake such explorations to find their own hidden patterns. Two to five photos for each letter provide plenty of examples to encourage such discoveries. Information on photo locations follows an explanatory afterword about the project. None of the shots was staged; the photos were not retouched. Obviously the book is not for alphabet novices. However, it would work well to spark interest in a number of subjects, particularly science, art, and design, and could be appreciated by budding naturalists. Stephen T. Johnson's Alphabet City (Viking, 1995) and Joanne Dugan's ABC NYC (Abrams, 2005) record human-made structures. All these books should stimulate readers to explore the world around them and to look more closely at their surroundings.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Wordless except for opening and closing remarks, an occasional phrase of commentary and a key at the back, this album of carefully framed but un-retouched photographs captures letter shapes in vines and tree branches, tufts of moss, rock formations, strands of seaweed, a lizard's tail and other natural objects. The pictures, arranged several to a spread, were shot mostly in California-but children anywhere will find in them an invitation to "collect" the letters that can be found all around: sometimes hidden, more often in plain sight. Shelve near Kjell Block Sandved's similar Butterfly Alphabet (1996) or Stephen Johnson's photorealistic Alphabet City (1995). (Picture book. 4-6)