A is for Anemone: A First West Coast Alphabet

Teaching youngsters to count from 1 to 10 and having them learn the letters of the alphabet are often among the first lessons that parents provide their children. The creative duo of Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd supplied caregivers with assistance in achieving the first task via the contents of their counting book, One Eagle Soaring, and now, with A is for Anemone: A First West Coast Alphabet, they offer visual assistance with the second by introducing the upper case letters of the English alphabet and then using each letter as the initial letter in the first word of a sentence. The contents of the sentences reflect some aspect of the West Coast, such as its wildlife, topography or weather.

Each letter of the alphabet is treated on a single page with its corresponding simple sentence, and the combined lines of text on each pair of facing pages then form a rhyming couplet. The book’s only two-page spread occurs with “O” and “P”.

Orcas like to hunt and play.

Paddlers travel far each day.

The accompanying illustration offers a panoramic ocean view in which an Orca can be observed breaching near a Pacific Northwest canoe in which can be seen the silhouettes of four conical hat-wearing paddlers.

Like the other books in the “First West Coast Book” series, the illustrations in A is for Anemone are combined with a glossy, tactile finish, and, as the book is tilted, Indigenous motifs reveal themselves. For instance, on the “T” page, what a youngster might first see is a mountain landscape, but the text reads, “Totem poles tell our stories.” A second glance reveals that six ghostly but tactile totem poles have been overlaid on the scene.

A is for Anemone is rich in both its art and its language. The former ranges from the brightness of “Anemones wave, coloured like jewels” to the grey somberness of “Rain falls gently in straight lines.” Activity-wise, the illustrations span “Humpbacks leap[ing] from deep below” to a solitary figure quietly standing on a shore as “Sunsets glow on tranquil seas.” As can be seen in the opening excerpt, the book’s creators employ similes and alliteration as well as highly descriptive (and language building) terms as in “Kelp fronds ripple in the tide” and “Urchins bristle with sharp spikes.” The book’s illustrations and text merit many revisits to more fully mine their bounty.

Though the board book format is usually associated with the preschool crowd, older school-aged children will also benefit from being exposed to A is for Anemone: A First West Coast Alphabet, especially the art.