B is for Buckeye ... But Is the Book for Kids or Grown-ups?

B Is for Buckeye - An Ohio Alphabet, by Marcia Schonberg.
Published by Sleeping Bear Press (2000)

Attention Grownups: Be careful when you pick up this book. You might learn something!

This slim and attractive book (with its shiny scarlet cover and beautiful buckeye leaf) is billed as a book for children, but I'm not convinced. I believe the book suffers from too lofty ambitions. Schonberg delivers rhyming prose on every page, for the younger reader. I've not seen the alpha-convention used effectively for older children, and this book is way over the head of the average preschooler. Then, in lengthy sidebars on each page, she offers more information for the older child. At times, the rhyme is strained and the sidebars are less than fascinating. On other pages, both work well. What's frustrating, though, is that neither is consistently good. The sidebar material, though, is meaty enough to warrant an index. Unfortunately, there isn't one.

The book is well illustrated by award-winning wildlife artist Bruce Langton, and it is full of information about the Buckeye State. B Is for Buckeye also deserves credit for encompassing -- in just 37 pages -- a healthy mix of natural, political, and economic history; it also includes many subjects that are certain to appeal to children, such as roller coasters, caves, insects and Indians.

I'd like to see this book as either a younger children's book, a "real" reference book (the information it contains is substantive, but there's no index!) or written in more of a storytelling tone.

Schonberg, a "real" Buckeye (she graduated from The Ohio State University) is an accomplished photographer in addition to being an author. She has penned two Ohio travel guides, and her photographs grace postcards, guidebooks, and galleries. Sleeping Bear Press has published several other state alpha-books (which I have not read); I suspect B Is for Buckeye was a tough assignment. Perhaps like the buckeye itself, it was a hard nut to crack. Although it will not earn a spot on my shelf of personal favorites, I do feel it belongs in every school library and in each of Ohio's first - third grade classrooms.

Editor's note: I read a lot of books about Ohio, as well as fictional works set in the state. I'll review a few here, from time to time, but for a comprehensive look at the newest titles and best-sellers that reference Ohio's People and Places, visit http://www.amazon.com or http://www.bn.com and search using "Ohio" as your criterion. Please feel free to start a discussion about your favorite works on and about Ohio.

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