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Every Little Letter

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Every Little Letter
By Deborah Underwood
Illustrated by Joy Hwang Ruiz
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2020. Picture Book.

There is a land where there are a lot of walls. These walls create 26 different communities. In each community there is a particular letter; for example, all the “B”s live together and all the “Q”s live together. This means that things are very set in the way they are. And all the conversations are the same. (Imagine a world when all you can say is “O o o o oooo.”) One day a curious little letter “h” decides to look through a crack in the wall and sees the letter “i”. The two become friends and a whole lot of happy chaos (and interference from frustrated adult letter parents who don’t want change) happens.

This is a great story to not only explore alphabet letters and upper and lower cases but also to explore learning, differences, and getting out of your comfort zone. Readers will be able to tell what the multi-colored letters are based on their shapes (with some added hands, facial features, and scribbles for hair). Kids who are learning to read will enjoy looking at the various letters and they start spelling out new words. Underwood and Ruiz have created a fun introduction to alphabet letters amid a community coming-of-age story.
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