Like all really good books for children, E-MERGENCY! By Tom Lichtenheld and Ezra Fields-Meyer (2011) will be enjoyed as much by the adult reader as the child being read to. It is a very colorful book. The use of color and the detailed artwork contribute to the feeling that there is, indeed, an emergency.
What is the emergency? Well, the letter E lives in a BIG house with her other twenty-five companions. One morning while hurrying down the stairs, a little too fast to breakfast, E slipped and fell. J walked across the street to where the numbers lived. 911 was called. The EMTs soon arrived with an IV and ready to perform CPR on injured E. Having determined that E needed TLC and an X-RAY, E was taken to the ER.
With E recuperating in the hospital, A assembled the entire remaining alphabet. It was quickly decided that O, being the most well-rounded letter in the alphabet family, would have to take E’s place until she recovered from her accident.
Needless to say, O had to work very hard taking E’s place in all of the words. After all, E is the most frequently used letter, and O is the third most frequently used letter. Not only was O burdened with an enormous task, but much confusion resulted. Just imagine having to road words whoro all of the Es have boon roplacod with Os. Fortunately E does recover just in timo for thE End of the story.
Tom Lichtenheld’s illustrations are excellent. I like to imagine him smiling as he works on telling the story in pictures. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Ezra Fields-Meyer is high school student form Los Angeles and creator of an animated short, “Alphabet House.”
I simply loved this book. As a father who took great joy in reading to my two daughters when they were little, I found myself wishing I had some children on the sofa next to me to read to them this book.
Until next time, be good to all God’s creation and always walk under the mercy.
Related articles
- Family 411: “E-mergency” is a fine read-aloud book (goerie.com)
Paul R. Waibel Official Home Page 