Barney’s Alphabet Soup. By Mary Ann Dudko. Photography by Dennis Full. The Lyons Group, 1997. 20 pages. $4.95 brdbk. 1-57064-118-8. Ages 2-5.

Young fans of television’s big purple dinosaur will love this opportunity to learn or practice the alphabet and have fun while doing so. Barney goes through the alphabet while adding ingredients to his pot of soup, from the usual (carrots and onions) to the downright silly (donuts and hotdogs). The photographs are clear and bright, and the book presents a close-up of each ingredient so that young toddlers can follow along as the book is read to them. As promised on the very first page, this is a “silly alphabet soup”: children will delight in the odd combinations of ingredients thrown hodge-podge into the pot by the dinosaur-turned-chef. Some of the letter and food combinations may run the risk of confusing younger children: “quiche” for “Q” seems like a bit of a stretch for children learning to match letters with their sounds in words, especially as some toddlers might be unfamiliar with the dish. Despite these few missteps, this book captures the lightheartedness and fun that should be at the essence of the toddler learning experience: young children can practice the alphabet while gleefully declaring “Yuck!” as Barney tosses jelly into his soup. Recommended. ( )

I love this book for teaching the alphabet. Very educational and easy to understand for beginning readers. I would recommend this book for young children (pre-k). ( )