Shahan, Sherry. (2002). The Jazzy Alphabet. (Mary Thelen, Illus.) New York, NY: Philomel Books.
My 3-year-old is obsessed with letters and numbers, and thankfully, the librarians at Imaginon, Charlotte's main children's library, have separated out several books into categories--letters, numbers, colors, dinosaurs, transportation, among others--and put them on display. We've found some good alphabet books this way, and this one is among the best.
The vocabulary itself is jazzy. The letter B includes the words "boogie woogie bebop a boogaloo bim-bam blues!" S includes "Saxophone X is swingin', so scuff your shiny shoes. Shimmy and shake to the scat man blues!" The illustrations include animals playing alphabet-matching instruments. A pig plays piano, an octopus plays the oboe, a dog plays the drum, a giraffe plays guitar. Children listen, dance, and sing along. Signs say "Jazz 2 Nite" and "Ellington Street," a street vendor sells pretzel, a dog sings the blues outside a fruit stand. I felt like I was listening to jazz music as I read this book. John Coltrane and Miles Davis fans will enjoy this book just for that reason.
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