A Big City ABC

B.A. Robinson was a freelance reviewer from Toronto.

In honour of Toronto’s Sesquicentennial (and with the assistance of its Committee), Allan Moak has created a colourful, effective, multicultural, non-sexist ABC book suitable for any child.

Moak’s primitive art style matches well with the simple but not simplistic text. Each page portrays some aspect of the Toronto milieu (e.g., Kensington, the island ferry) in bright colours and detailed scenes.

The text uses only lower-case letters (“e is for excavation”; “o is for october”).

At the end of the book is a further explanation of the various locations portrayed in the pictures, with Moak’s comments about his choices.

Toronto children in particular and Canadian children in general will enjoy this home-grown book which should stand up well in the international market.