Richard Scarry's ABC Word Book

1971, possibly first edition, from Random House
Richard Scarry
Richard Scarry's ABC Word Book
Original (and purchase?) price unknown
Very worn hardcover with stains and scribbles
C+

This was a fifth birthday present from my uncle and cousins.  I doubt I learned much about the alphabet from it, although I think I used to copy the letters on the end papers.  (I'm not sure what font it is but it's sort of like Times New Roman.)  With usually a two-page spread per letter, Scarry offers little vignettes, with the spotlighted letter in red.  The thing is, there's not much help with pronunciation, or explanations of why E, for instance, makes so many different sounds and in this case can even be silent.  Complicating the issue, CH, SH, and TH get attention as well, although "Christmas," with its K-sound is all in black. 

Unlike What Do People Do All Day?, there's not really anything tying this all together, other than the alphabet.  Some characters recur, such as the Red-Baron-like Rudolf the fox pilot, but there's no common thread and no sense of completion when you get to Z.  (The earlier book ended with a big meal for all the workers.)  There are amusing details of course, like the chimpanzee driving a tin lizzie (for Z, although if you guessed I, I don't blame you).  And of course we see a high number of comical accidents, both vehicular and household.  (Geez, somebody buy these animals a smoke alarm or a kitchen timer, before something else burns on the stove.)  Not a bad picture book but far from Scarry's best.