Combining two familiar literary figures of speech--alliteration and end rhyme--A Is Not Only for Apple: English Alphabet Rhymed and Illustrated helps very young learners of English obtain their early sensitivity to the sounds of the English alphabet in a natural, literary and linguistic way. Each English letter, from A to Z, is accompanied by a set of rhymed couplet meant to be witty and imaginative, and an enticing, childlike illustration by Canadian illustrator Anat Tour.
With the use of alliteration (Latin for "repeating and playing upon the same letter"), a figure of speech in which certain letters, especially those placed at the beginning of words, are repeated, young learners learn how to detect the recurrence of a certain letter in a couplet. Take A as an example, they will find there are altogether seven words that begin with A in the following couplet:
"Little ant, little ant, do you have an arm?
Are you stealing the acorns in April from the farm?"
With the use of end rhyme, which usually occurs at the end of a line of verse, the book shows young readers how a couplet rhymes. Take I as an example:
"Inside the ivory wall where inhabits the iguana.
It isolates itself, though indeed it needs ice cream with banana."
Speaking of imagination, which Coleridge considered to be "synthetic" and "magical", the book tries to enlighten young readers' minds with a bit of adult sophistication:
"To understand and unveil the unseen universe--
Untie, unchain and unloose your mind with a verse."
