Books: Enchantments For

Children A short shelf of season's readings, from Art to Zigzag

A is for abecedarians, people who are learning the alphabet. This season they and their families are in luck: three ABC books offer a bright amalgam of sophistication and simplicity. In Pigs from A to Z (Houghton Mifflin; $15.95), Arthur Geisert's suite of copper etchings follows siblings with curly tails and mischievous minds as they construct a wolfproof tree house by the letters. En route, the illustrator-author ingeniously employs words that describe his book (eerie, ideal, spectacular) and performs the hardest task in children's literature: enlightening with surprises.

Two other volumes share the same aim. Florence Cassen Mayers' red ABC (Abrams;...

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