The Alphabet from the Sky by Benedikt Groß

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Alphabet from the Sky by Benedikt Groß Deborah Stevenson, Editor Groß, Benedikt The Alphabet from the Sky; by Benedkit Groß and Joey Lee. Price Stern Sloan/Penguin Random House, 2016 [64p] illus. with photographs ISBN 978-1-101-99581-5 $18.99 Reviewed from galleys R 6-9 yrs This alphabet book, based on the Aerial Bold Kickstarter project, uses letters found in aerial images of locations in the U.S. to create its abecedary. Each spread contains a bit of text, a full-bleed aerial photo of a locale containing something shaped like the letter, and a thumbnail legend giving the name and coordinates of the spot and identifying it on a U.S. map. It’s a shame that there isn’t more information about the project itself, which led to the development of a landscape-based font and an app that identifies letters in the landscape, but the seek-and-find challenge of locating the letter in the spread is entertaining (end matter includes a gallery with tight focus for those who may be stumped). There’s really no fudging in the letters, so they’re easy to discern, and it’s amusing to see how vividly we’ve created these shapes in the landscape: an X-shaped building, an M-shaped road, a T-shaped park. The alphabet is only the start of possibilities here, so be ready to crack open Google Earth and have the kids look for patterns in your own town. Copyright © 2016 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois