The Dangerous Alphabet
‘The dangerous Alphabet’ appears to be a great idea and a very clever book – but perhaps a bit too clever for its intended audience.
The illustrations and the poetic nature of this book are excellent, it is visually a gorgeous book. The idea of two children with their pet gazelle who travel through a maze deep underground in order to solve a mystery, would certainly give the impression that this book is a winner. And it has received rave reviews from acclaimed authors who have said things like “delicate horror of the finest fairy tales”, “weird, and frightening” and “a fascinating and disturbing story that frightened me nearly to death”.
Alphabet books are intrinsically aimed at pre-readers and young children, and while I don’t doubt the cleverness of this book – it is not appropriate for the age group that would be interested in an alphabet book. If this is meant to be a book to help teach children the alphabet, it definitely misses the mark.
About the reviewer: Paul has been teaching primary school students for 20 years and has two young children of his own.
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I’m a big Neil Gaimon fan and honestly I can’t picture him doing a book really intended for really young children, it’s just not the type of stuff he could do well. The reading level says 9-12 years old, hardly pre-readers (I hope). So I think you are picturing this book as being for for a younger audience than it is intended for. Parents really shouldn’t choose books for their kids without at least doing the bare basics to check up on reading level, never assume a book is for the audience you think it is.