Alsek's ABC Adventure

Deborah Dowson is a children’s librarian in Pickering, Ontario.

This first book by author/illustrator Chris Caldwell is published by
“Lost Moose—the Yukon publishers of books from the North about the
North.” The regional setting, together with the unusual comic style
applied to the predictable alphabet formula, makes this ABC book
wonderfully different.

The story of Alsek the bear searching for his daily grub is the thread
that shapes the letter pages into a narrative; but the storyline is of
secondary importance to the inevitable searching game that develops.
Despite the fun, the educational value of the format is notable. The
animals and scenery specific to the North are there to be discovered and
identified. The visual representations are vibrant and expressive. The
animals appear as caricatures with exaggerated features that create a
comic effect, such as Alsek’s enormous tongue lolling out of his
gaping mouth in anticipation of food. The choice of language is also
exaggerated. The extreme use of alliteration is obviously contrived, but
this makes for fun as children delight in hearing the reader trip over
the tongue twisters. The unusual choice of phrases such as “nibbly
nuggets,” “petrified ponies,” and “wacky weirdness” fits
perfectly with the zany style of this book. Highly recommended.