LMNO Peas by Keith Baker (Beach Lane Books, 2010) combines two things my son absolutely loves: the alphabet and peas. (I kid you not. With the right amount of salt and pepper and butter, yes must have butter, he will eat a whole bowl).
In Baker’s book, each letter of the ABC books stands for a job that the peas can do, represented by a group of peas doing the said occupation.
First, I loved that it was an ABC book on careers! Many ABC books are animals or generic nouns, so it was a welcome break. Further, it is absolutely adorable to see little round peas with legs and arms doing all sorts of things. The art is great, with bright illustrations and big block letters dominating each page and providing a stage for the pea actors. I think it was a creative way to illustrate the alphabet.
The best testimony to this picture book is that we keep returning to it. A few weeks ago, the library had an image of the cover on a back-to-school display poster and my son pointed to it and said, “Oh, let’s read the LMNOP book again, Mommy!!”
