A Is for Bee
A Is for Bee
BEST OF THE YEAR
The New York Times · Booklist Top of the List · World Kid Lit
What letter does the word bee start with?
If you said “B” you’re right – in English!
But in many, many languages, it actually starts with A.
Bee is Aṅụ̄ in Igbo,
Aamoo in Ojibwe,
Abelha in Portugese.
And Arı in Turkish.
Come and explore the gorgeous variations in the ways we talk about familiar things, unified and illuminated through Ellen Heck’s eye-catching, graphic scratchboard details and hidden letterforms.
P R A I S E
★ “A gorgeous collection for linguists of all ages."
—Booklist (starred)
“The ultimate demonstration of inclusion, and the beauty of world languages. This lavishly illustrated multilingual alphabet book isn’t about inclusion, it is inclusion.”
—The New York Times
"Kaleidoscopic and delightful. Any lover of language, or any child who likes new sounds, will be entranced."
—Kory Stamper, NYT
“Beautiful. A book that presents an understanding far beyond the usual. Marvelous”
—Betsy Bird, SLJ Fuse 8
PRAISE
BEST OF THE YEAR
The New York Times · Booklist Top of the List · World Kid Lit
★ “A gorgeous collection for linguists of all ages."
—Booklist (starred)
“Beautiful. A book that presents an understanding far beyond the usual ABC crowd. A beautiful title that any library/bookstore/person would be honored to present.”
—Betsy Bird, SLJ Fuse 8
“Children and adults alike will come away with a new perspective.”
—Foreword
“Stunning….The variety of languages and animals will keep curious kids poring over individual pages and thinking about the differences and similarities among languages.”
—Horn Book
Ellen Heck is a printmaker. For the past decade, through several print projects, she has explored questions about identity—its creation, variability, persistence and change. She studied philosophy at Brown University and art at SAIC. Inspired by reading Lithuanian alphabet books to her son, A Is for Bee is her debut picture book.
