The alphabet learns better when it is attached to somewhere. Here it is a whole busy town: Miss Baboon's classroom for A through D, the community garden where Elephant waters the flowers with his nose for E through H, then the grocery store, the pool, the harbour. Twenty six letters, each one anchored to a thing a toddler can see and point at.

Twelve chunky board flaps hide the payoff on every spread, and each flap carries a peek-through hole, so a child gets a hint of what is underneath before the fine motor skills are fully there. Lifting is the hook. The vocabulary comes along for the ride, which is precisely how it should work at this age.

Written by Jaye Garnett and illustrated by Kathrin Fehrl. Seven inches square, thick enough to survive the bottom of a nursery basket.