Review - A Apple Pie

A Apple Pie
by Kate Greenaway
Date: 1886
Publisher: Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd.
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 48
Format: e-book
Source: Read.gov

In this delightfully illustrated educational tool, the popular children's author from years gone by uses full-color pictures to teach young children about the alphabet, with examples that help them learn their ABCs.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

No, the title isn't a grammatical mistake. This is actually an alphabet book, and the title is based on the first page for the first letter.

This is actually pretty charming and not as dated as I feared. The whole book revolves around this massive pie. Letters of the alphabet are highlighted along with a verb (well, except for "A", of course) such as "eat", "knelt", and "mourned". Some of the words make more sense than others. The last page made me laugh because it seemed like the author was phoning it in (or whatever they did before they had phones):

UVWXYZ all had a large slice and went off to bed

Okay...

I kind of loved looking at the illustrations and seeing all the old fashions. There are a number of large knives, and a boy at one point is chasing the others away from the giant pie with a stick, so I'm not sure if it entirely passes today's standards for what's appropriate in children's books. But it's an interesting look at another time through the most basic of children's picture books: the alphabet book.

Quotable moment:

Premise: 4/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall: 3.5 out of 5