Our librarian columnist, Julie Booker, explores the ABC books out there that help Canadian kids associate words and images to different parts of the country.

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I once took a tour of opal-mining country with a bushy-bearded, gap-toothed Aussie named Ando. He drove his sputtering van over endless parched stone, past intermittent dusty bushes then suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere. “There!” he yelled grabbing a forked branch from the glove compartment. “Made a claim ten years ago but I was too drunk to mark it!” Ando jumped out and began dowsing intently for the opal lines made from water sluicing through the earth. Meanwhile, back in the van, the ultimate backpacker’s game was underway. We each scribbled down images associated with the countries we represented: Scandinavia, England, France, Germany. Canada, of course, garnered Mounties, snow, hockey. This month’s list reminds me of this pastime, but the ABC texts cover a lot more ground than Ando’s water witching stick.

En masse, these books encompass the idea of Canada really well. They all follow a similar format. Full-page pictures showcase a treasure hunt of alliterative objects, each with a sentence (often rhyming) to explain the concepts. Most include a more detailed glossary. The west is rendered in A Mountain Alphabet by Margriet Ruurs and Andrew Kiss, in which a favourite illustration shows a German shepherd on a picnic blanket next to a lake, looking put-out by the white quills pincushioning his nose. The accompanying caption reads: ”Quit quarrelling with quilled creatures, Quincy!”

A Prairie Alphabet by Jo Bannatyne-Cugnet and Yvette Moore presents similarly explicit scenes with an Alex Colville-feel, from the grand aerial view of the prairies down to the tiny “mouse munching millet by moonlight.” This one doesn’t shy away from introducing unfamiliar vocabulary for kids, such as “quonset" and “sundogs.” A Seaside Alphabet covers the east coast with vibrant paintings of human life, historical landmarks (Cape Spear, L’Anse Aux Meadows), and industry. In A Northern Alphabet, Ted Harrison uses his distinctive banners of colour to create images-as-story-starters. Who could resist inventing the tale behind the illustration of “Kate and Kevin kissing behind the kayak”?

Each alphabet book tackles a theme. Z is for Zamboni, A Hockey Alphabet by Matt Napier, introduces hockey legends (e.g., Plante, Gretzky, Lemieux, Wickenheiser) a smattering of history (e.g., The Stanley Cup) and explains key terminology. M is for Moose, A Charles Pachter Alphabet veers from the formula, using Pachter’s art to cover a whimsical gamut of cultural and literary references, including Trudeau and a lot of moose. Dirk McLean’s Play Mas’! A Carnival ABC dynamically illustrates the annual Toronto (and international) parade by giving an overview of its origins. If all eight books mentioned here were put together, then M is for Maple, A Canadian Alphabet by Mike Ulmer, would act as a summary, with Anne of Green Gables, Terry Fox, the Last Spike, and the Underground Railroad.

On her first day as teacher-librarian, Julie Booker was asked by a five year old if that was her real name. She's felt at home in libraries since her inaugural job as a page in the Toronto Public Library. She is the author of Up Up Up, a book of short stories published by House of Anansi Press in 2011.