The Trades
by Howard Price
http://www.the-trades.com

“Charley’s wooden alphabet letters tuck themselves in for the night, only to quickly discover that one of them is missing! Little ‘x’ has gone, having flown away on one of Charley’s pencils.The remaining little letters soon form an expedition and fly off into the night on another pencil in search of the missing character. They find Charley’s missing pencil outside a castle, and swoop down to investigate, only to be confronted by a crooked capital ‘I’ and the master of the castle, a monstrous capital ‘M’. And sure enough, there’s little ‘x’, tap-dancing a tune on the xylophone to help keep ‘M’ asleep.

“Each page of this delightful romp…will captivate little eyes at every turn.”

It seems ‘x’ ran away because he felt underused, but ‘i’ knows a secret: Charley’s mother is having a birthday the next day, and Charley planned a big job for ‘x’. But when ‘M’ wakes up, getting little ‘x’ and the rest of the little letters back home to Charley becomes a frightening adventure! Little x was so surprised he stopped dancing on the xylophone…
…and that’s when the giant M awakened. “MMMM!” M said. “I see little letters! Fire up the pot, Crooked I. It’s time for alphabet soup!” All of the little letters began to tremble. But just as things turn scary for the little letters, ‘x’ comes up with a brilliant solution to save the day, and the giant ‘M’ and the crooked ‘I’ fly back with them to Charley’s house to join their group.”
“Each pageof this delightful romp through the ABC’s is a double-spread layout of computer aided illustrations, evocative of similar effects of Toy Story or Ice Age, and will captivate little eyes at every turn. Not since “Letter People” has there been something of this quality designed for children just becoming familiar with their alphabet. Educational without being pedantic, this book is one your kids will want to pick up on their own.”