Sometimes picture books have such sophisticated humor that it's a shame they get relegated to the children's area of the library. E-mergency is a perfect example. It's an alphabet book, sure, but the letters of the alphabet are the characters in the story, which is the tale of E being injured and unable to work. After sending E to the ER with the EMTs, A gathers the remaining letters and addresses the problem of the missing E. As you know, E is the most-used letter in the English language, so her absence is huge. A assigns O to fill in for E because he's "so well-rounded." The announcement is made in a "spocial bullotin" on the TV, where the public is admonished "do not uso E until sho rocovors." The real treat, though, is the accompanying illustrations -- done by a 14-year-old -- and the comments from the letter characters (N tells P and U that they shouldn't sit togothor, for example, and guess what P is doing on the opening spread, showing all the letters at home in the house they share).
Just because it's in a picture-book format doesn't mean it's for little kids. Grab this one for some quality yuck-it-up time with your fourth-grader.
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