This book was a real page-turner! It uses the lower-case letter (and capital I and M) as the characters. The letters belong to a little boy named Andy, who is planning a birthday surprise for his mom.
Beginning on the very first page, a mystery is introduced, little x is missing! The rest of the book tells the story of an imaginative adventure of flying on pencils, exploring a castle and finally finding little x dancing for the horrible green monster -capital M. Little x feels lonely and sad because he is never used (not many words need a little x). Finally the little x is coaxed back home and I and M are invited as well. Finally the final page displays the message that is written on a birthday cake for Andy's mom "I love you Mom! xxxx" Of course you need lots of little x for this message!
This book is excellent for teaching the alphabet and letter recognition to kids. The names of the letters are emphasized in the text using a different color which could be used in the classroom to get all the kids to say these letters together. One page of the book shows each letter of the alphabet with the presents they chose for Andy's mom, this can be used as a fun activity for kids too (they could find all the letters and realize, "hmm... the present each letter chooses begins with them").
There are just endless opportunities in this book to stop and discuss, unlike many of the other alphabet books that are out there, this one expands and allows for elaboration on teaching skills like comprehension, inquiry, and learning about components the of a story.
P.S. After I read this book with a two-year old who was very engaged with the story, he was seeing "little x" all over the place: in other books, on the fridge (magnet), on a tv program... There should be one like this for every letter of the alphabet!
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