Love the book. Love it. Not as heartwarming as the Johnny Cash storybook, but much more practical. Publish it, sell it online and ship internationally. I'll buy it.
Also, there is no doubt in my mind that Juniper grow up far from traumatised, although I do have to wonder about the psychological health of people who feel the need to send bloggers mean email. And as much as I am concerned for their welfare, I do strongly believe that another posting of hateful comments à la Walmart story is in order.
Thanks, but I could never sell this. Nor would I want to. The people who made that art did not do it for money, and I have no desire to make any money by their talent. This is for everyone to enjoy for free.
If you don't want to sell it, you should at least advertise it so more people can enjoy it. I'll be saving a copy for myself and sharing other copies with babies I know.
this is a bazillion kinds of cool. LOVE IT!
Perfect.
I'm going to feel like an idiot for posting this, but what's W? I want to put the little devil on a t-shirt. The cross-legged buddahs (is that what that is?) have turned up in Atlanta.
You are right, but it would be wonderful in book form.
Awesome book! I'm a preschool teacher and alphabet book fan, so I just have one small comment. Knight does start with K, but of course it is silent. A word that starts with a "kuh" sound is a bit more instructional, unless of course Juniper is learning about silent initial consonants this week : )
brilliant idea... I understand why you'd never feel comfortable selling it, but if there's one thing we all know it's that somewhere, someone is looking at this and thinking, "just because Dutch isn't going to profit from this doesn't mean I can't"... but that's just my $0.02.
This makes me wish that my neighborhood had better street art than "Mike Wuz Hea".
Dutch, this rules, I love it! "J" rocks.
I like that some of these are not super obvious so you can make them up. See, you thought "economist" and I thought "evil genius." Because glasses make you smart, of course.
Thanks guys!
Jeff, if anyone did try to sell it, I still hold the copyright to this, and I doubt anyone out there is stupid to infringe the copyright of an unemployed lawyer.
Gigi- the silent K and G are on purpose. I don't want Juniper thinking she's too clever.
Jennifer, some of them definitely are intentionally ambiguous. Like H. E could also be engineer, I thought, but I LOVE evil genius. that's kind of an evil genius coat.
What is the picture for the "U" supposed to represent? I was thinking U-boat, but that doesn't look like a U-boat. The others are so clever, that I'm guessing I just don't get this one. Please help.
Thanks!
Megan
U= Ulysses.
Tramp, Yeti, Viking and Ulysses to say a few is ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. Though Zombie is my favourite by far. Well done Dutch.
Delurking in awe of a great alphabet!
On a much more subdued note, there's also the Nerd ABCs:
http://tiffanyard.com/nerd.htm
omg is that I for Icarus??? *dork*cough*
I know you don't want to profit, but there is always for charity. I'd make one for The Dude in a NY minute.
That is fantastic. My husband will love it (I had to fight him desperately not to decorate the nursery in robots when Petunia was born, and he also spent much time with his high school friends plotting what they would do when the zombies csme-if you're in Mentor OH when the shit goes down, apparently the Great Lakes Mall would make a great place to fend off the undead).
If you haven't given up on books, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Lois Ehlert) is a nontraditional alphabet book...the lowercase letters are characters racing to the top of the coconut tree, until it gets too heavy and tips over. The most fun part is when the letters are all banged up (black-eyed p, stubbed-toe e, loose tooth t, etc) and their 'mamas and papas and uncles and aunts' (the uppercase letters) come to collect them.
What is H? Hermit? Hindu? And I'm stumped on O, too.
i was curious- so i just checked all of pnuts alphabet-related books etc and lo and behold every damn N is nest! wtf?
i just love this- it's a bit reminiscent of electric company for me (in a good way)- i remember being little and looking for letters in the urban landscape. that you found picture to match is just damn brilliant. thanks for sharing your creativity with us- juniper is a lucky girl to have you guys!
I came to ask if I was for Icarus, but I see someone already beat me to the punch.
I think H is for homeless....?
What are Q and T? It's probably obvious and I just need more coffee.
Awesome, AWESOME idea.
is H homeless?
is O officer?
p.s. wow- talk about your target audience with juniper advertising for babylegs up top- it's about time she gets recognized as their poster-child! i hope that girl is getting paid!
that's your best one yet, dude.
ps: admit it, you secretely love the weirdo emails.
is Q quest?
i need to stop and let someone else get a turn.
p.s. i just checked- along with the requisite queens we also have a quail for Q. nice. cause babies need to know what it is when they run across a quail.
ok seriously i am done now.
O=officer
Q=Quixote
These are amazing photgraphs. I think you've transformed them brilliantly. And, for what it's worth, if you did decide to market this, I'd buy two.
Um, AMAZING. Seriously. Publish that thing.
W = warlock?
X = xoskeleton?
maybe I need to go back to school.
*exoskeleton
i thought H was Hades and E was Egghead. These are fantastic! And I like Dr. Seuss's ABC's. It does not use any of the standard stuff. Like N is "Nine New Neckties, Nightshirt, Nose". And yes I have it memorized, it's one of Stella's favorites.
oh, and what is S? Anybody know? i'm guessing that W is Witch.
Or turn it into a poster! You brilliant people you!
Dutch, this is truly brilliant. I absolutely want a copy of every single letter and will assemble a very 'informative' book for Stella. I might put the images into one of those Apple books to keep it nice and tidy. Are you going to make any sort of introductory page with your name and any of the other known artists/photographers? I wouldn't want to miss a detail.
Dutch, you are the coolest ever.
Officer! Doh! I was thrown off by the checkered brim of the cap and what I realize now are sunglasses. I thought it was a taxi driver with an eye patch and all I could come up with was Old Man.
The ninja is my favorite.
Very cool
man, I feel great. I saw "Q" and thought, "hey, is that...Quixote? That can't be it..."
X is x-ray, I think, and S is Snowman. Maybe it's a Quixotic Robot Snowman.
Once again, Dutch, this is brilliant. Here's what I think you should do. Print off (or get us to print off) copies of it. Once it is pulled together in some kind of chp book format, we should put a "FREE FOR THE TAKING" sign on the front and then go out into the world with copies. We could leave them at bookstores, public health offices, playgrounds and the like...
Heck you could even model a project on (damn I can't remember the name of it) that internet site that traces free books. You know, in addition to the "FREE" sign we could put a url that would allow people to track the coipies as they wend their way through the world.
OK, I'll shut up now. I'm just thinking out loud not really intending that you should or shouldn't do any more with this than you already have--which is a lot. It's just that sometimes you awaken the radical librarian in me.
Happy belated birthday to Juni. She and my daughter were born 3 days (and worlds) apart. I had a becoming 2 tantrum on my hands last night but it was neither eloquently described nor did it involve otters.
am I the only one who doesn't get L?
Help. What am I missing?
Echoing all the others in saying this is fantastic. The "H=Homeless" does, however, make me uncomfortable. What's up with that?
L=leprechaun
Dutch, you're one of my heroes.
H could also be Hobo.
Ah, Julie beat me to the "E for Egghead" guess. "Personae Urbana" is just about the coolest thing I've seen yet this year. I don't even have a kid yet and I want it. Well done!
Ideas for H -- Hephaestus, Hagrid, Hermit, and tHe dude who's friends with Grandpa Simpson.
Great work, Dutch, thanks for sharing! This beats the crap out of that Butterfly Alphabet poster I was going to buy for my friends' 3wk.old twin boys' nursery, heh heh heh.
Oh wow! I love this - it's beautiful and creative! My favourite would be the zombie of course (I'm a big fan and plot how to survive an attack on a daily basis-just in case. You'll never know). Ninja would be my next fave because we're big ninja fans in this household. Well done!
Dude, you should totally get this published, if only to widen the audience and get more kids interested in things like ninjas and thespians ("T"?). You could donate the profits to local street artists and educate kids at the same time. This is the best picture book I've. ever. seen. Way to go!
I'm forwarding it to a ton of friends with babies, Dutch. Thanks!
I saw H and thought "help" in a deeply moving way.
There's a great Canadian alphabet book by Wallace Edwards called Alphabeasts. The lurid illustrations are glorious. I also have in my collection (I'm a librarian) an alphabet called the Adult's Alphabet. It is, shall we say, only for the young at heart.
My son is so loving the ABCs right now. We don't stick to the traditional "A is for Apple" either--though Zombie hadn't occurred to me for Z!
Thanks for sharing this. Very cool!
So great. I'm beyond impressed with myself that I thought of "Q=Quixote" before having any coffee. You rule.
dutch you are badass. I still don't get H though... haunt? he looks kind of like a ghost. and B is for Buddha? or bodhisava? personally I am a big fan of the viking, and also Icarus. good work.
(from GEM)
Dutch, this is so beautiful! I love reading your blog and getting a good dose of your creative thinking and writing. The Okapis and I made a project out of the abc's also. Every day after nap we would get up and I would draw a big block letter "of the day" and then we would brainstorm what starts with that sound and then we (meaning I) would draw it and let them color or scribble around it or on it. Being part of the process really helped them understand the connection of the letter to the sound. Then we put them up in their playroom and they see it every day and it became part of their everyday world. Thanks for this lovely "book" I think I will print it out and add it to their walls.
Ps. I love I for Icarus.
What fun! Excellent project. I want this as a poster!
quixote...of course...
what's that noise, you ask? it's the sound of my dried-up brain rattling around inside my head.
i'm liking the idea of the poster. and definitely am on board to at least get this printed nicely and make our own book for pnut. who am i kidding, the book will be for me!
Delurking to say that I absolutely love it. I'm passing this on to a designer friend who did her master's thesis on street art in Pittsburgh.
I saw "H" and thought Homer or Hades... I don't get how it could be "homeless". And "E" I thought of Einstein.
So great though, I love it!
AWESOME!
Who knew you were so creative?!?
Juniper has a great dad. I hope she loves the book.
Wow. This is fantastic.
This is great! Some really nice street art.
We do have a kid's alphabet book (published in London, 196
with some unorthodox words that I picked up at a flea market for a quarter. The one that stands out is C for Chinaman, complete with a squinty-eyed, big-toothed guy in the straw hat. They loved this picture so much it is also on the back cover. N is still for nest, though.
Are you kidding me? 8 + closed parenthesis = smiley face? Registering my annoyance with haloscan or whoever caused this indignity.
You? Are awesome.
SO using this.
I love this so much!! I'm nowhere near having little ones, but when the day comes, I am absolutely making them an urban alphabet book. Or maybe a world cultures book...p is for pyramids?
Great, now I feel completely stupid for not knowing what some of these were. At least I can still blame it on my preggo brain.
It's brilliant. BRILLIANT I tell ya!
Awesome! There are only so many times one can stomach -Eating the Alphabet- If J's anything like my two year old, numbers are next.
The graffiti yeti is my favorite.
Delurking to say "AMEN!"
I'm printing this out ASAP to share with baby Xaelen.
THANKS!
Thank you for curating this collection. I do think it should be published. Profits could be donated to a legal defense fund for graffiti artists!
SA- that's not a bad idea.
Wow! Thank you! I agree that you should publish it. A lot of these images would make great t-shirts as well.
This is really fantastic! We have a set of letter flash cards for Will that we are guessing were originally from England. A is Auto and N is night, but my favorite is D, which is Dust...and it shows someone dusting. I agree with pnutsmom, I would want the book for me as well.
i'd buy this in a heartbeat. get it published, damnit! make the other alphabet book makers cringe in fear of a takeover!! love it!
SO great! I want that book NOW!
I had to take down the super-high res 7MB images because of bandwidth issues; the ones up now are about 500K. if anyone still wants the really big ones, let me know.
Let's put this way - I am happy to download it, but I would be even happier to buy it. What a great idea - you rock.
I LOVE this. (Even though the J makes me a little uncomfortable....)
And I'll echo the other bazillion posters who want to see it published. Go with lulu.com and follow SA's suggestion about the legal defence fund for profits. I'd love to give my little urban baby this book.
I'll also second Mad Hatter's love of Alphabeasts. Wallace Edwards also has a new book about idioms in the same lush style.
Very creative and cool!
you might like abba richman's work- photographing in an abstract way with street images he photographs that make a slide look like an S ,etc. check him out.
liz- definitely cool. here's a link for anyone who might be interested:
http://www.pbase.com/abbarich/im.../image/
18004012
I am also printing out Dave Gorman's flickr photographs of Eine's East End Shopfront "garage door" letters and turning those into a book:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgb...rocks/85439592/
Everyone else has said it, but I feel the need to say it, too – this is freakin' amazing. I love it, and I'm going to HAVE to make a book for my way-way-in-the-future children. This is awesome!! You've done it again!
I love this! It's perfect for my son, who's got his alphabet down but still really enjoys ABC books anyway - and of course the ambiguity adds a fun dimension to it. I definitely need to print it so we can spend some time figuring out words for it together. Satoshi Kitamura has two wonderful ABC books, if you're looking for some that are fun but a little less traditional. One has two letters to a page leading on to two more letters on the next page in a very cool way, and there are more unusual words (my husband loves "snow and tiger" - he insists it's one of the most beautiful phrases ever). The other has tons of words for each of the letters, so you get both traditional and non-traditional ABC words. I do hope you turn this into either a book or a poster, because I don't think me and the cheap-o printer are going to do it justice at all.
What can I say that everyone else hasn't already said? I really love the project- it is truly delightful. After much consideration, I've decided the zombie and buddha are equally my favorites.
no wait, now the pirate and the yeti are my favorites.
Hell, I'd definitley buy one. Maybe with this my daughter might even try to learn her letters.
Ulysses is my favorite (and I love that there's Odyssey graffiti out there in the world -- with sirens and everything! Does my little Classics-loving heart good).
Okay - close second favorite: T for Tramp.
Perfect. I'd buy this in a second. I have and really like the De Feo book, but yours is so much better.
People who read this blog should note that, much like the Bush administration, any dissenting opinion on how cool Dutch and Wood are, as well as comments criticizing their parenting philosophy, are not welcome on this blog (and are blocked from posting by the administrator). This is an incredible insult to free speech and their attempt at spin management is Orwellian at best. In the spirit of Molly Ivins, who felt that dissent was the most patriotic thing you could do: Honey don't get those panties in such a wad.
Signed,
Free Speech Patriot
[Ed. note: the only time any comment has ever been deleted or any individual blocked from commenting here was when we received several extremely nasty comments from the same IP address in the Bay Area (east suburbs) several weeks ago. The first negative comment is still there, but subsequent comments purporting to support the initial one from "different" readers (but actually coming from the same IP address) were deleted, and the user banned). This "free speech patriot" comment came from a different IP address pinpointed to Alamo, California, just a few miles from the location of the banned IP address from which the initial comments were left. Although this individual is an inconsequential troll, I take allegations that we curb free speech here seriously and assure anyone who wishes to comment here, whether they agree or disagree with us, is welcome to do so, just so long as they do not abuse the system.]
Edited By Siteowner
snap! somebody's pissed.
I love this. There were some I couldn't even figure out. (And you know, that whole J.D. thing ought to help...)
You will be making a million yet at this whole stay at home daddy thing. I see it as the next big It book for the under 2 set.
what about a lulu book?
I still don't get W -- you might consider going with something a bit more easily identifiable, like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cs_...cs___/46440449/
That's a great W, but I wanted to have some more girls. The witch may not be super obvious, but at least she's obviously a girl.
I like it, but gnome? That's just mean... funny, but mean.
So, just to be clear - free speech is OK as long as it is (a) supportive - as in "so.cool." or "Best.Blog.Ever." or (b) muted in tone. If a person wants to make a comment that is particularly biting and critical, that person may be permitted one comment (or may be deleted), but after the one, is blocked. And that's not an echo chamber?
Is Sweet Juniper now a sovereignty? Are you accepting applications for asylum?
hahaha, never in a million years would I ever have imagined that sweet juniper would have been compared to the bush administration. sweet mother of god.
seriously, 'freedom-lover,' (if that IS your real name) maybe you should get a life of your own? or don't read blogs that irritate you to the point that you need to be 'biting and critical' in the comments section? yeesh. maybe you could spend that time doing something a little more constructive and life-giving. it's a parenting blog for goodness sake, not a public policy forum.
and please stop assuming that everyone who reads here are mindless SJ lemmings who numbly nod along and redefine their lives based on what is written here. that is so insulting. since when does any reader have to be 100% on board with everything that is posted on any blog? there have been many posts where the authors enjoy a creative dialogue with people of many differing viewpoints on a variety of topics. go take a look through the archives and see for yourself.
may I suggest you get your own forum for self-expression of your ideologies and stop bothering those of us who just want to enjoy the creativity and craftsmanship of the letter X. thank you.
That is freaking awesome.
Dutch, I hope you decide to publish and set the proceeds aside for the legal defense fund mentioned above - that would be perfect.
Also, Juniper may not be to this stage yet, but it won't be long before flash cards will be a huge attraction. These images as flash cards would be AWESOME. So if you don't publish the book, maybe you could consider that. (Although I like the poster idea, too.)
A few more things: I love the Fairy and the Pirate...and the Zombie, of course. And I thought E was for Einstein!
Are you going to elaborate on what H is? I've seen lots of suggestions but I didn't see you confirm any. Just curious. Oh, and what is J?
Publish that book, you'll be rich. You could do so many, we're geeks here out our house and Im already thinking D&D inspired alphabet book, O is for Orc. great idea!
Ok. So you won't sell this version. I completely understand and respect that.
However, it doesn't mean that you couldn't write a similar book and maybe even commission artists to do the various versions.
You have a big readership. Some of the viewers have to be in (or have contacts in) the publishing industry. I challenge them to get you a Sweet Juniper Urban Alphabet Primer deal.
Then you figure out which images and words would work best and then find artists to help you with the vision.
I think it would be awesome as well... because this is awesome too, of course.
Although the tramp is cute, since you're a Detroit dweller why didn't you use the turtle as letter T?
There are literally thousands of those cute graffiti turtles (turtl, trtl, trdl) on walls all over Detroit. I'm sure you've seen them by now since you've already spoken of going to many more places in the city than this native Detroiter has ever been.
Xtina - lulu is a self publishing site that prints on demand, so it has a lower cost. I haven't used it but a friend did a kids book that way and it's pretty cool.
The theme for this book was "characters of the city"--- all are humanish, at least not animals. The other two books I am working on are fauna and objects. The turtle is already in the fauna one. I like your thinking, though, other amy.
I thought E was for Einstein too. Not cause he has a fuzzy mustache and crazy hair or anything, just the smart nerdy stereotype.
fucking genius.
such a crush.
I can't imagine pointing out J to my Jewish daughter. Maybe it should have been under H for Hasid because I think it's too narrow a description for an entire religion or ethnicity.
I understand, EvenYou. I knew that some Jewish readers would see the humor in it and others would probably find it offensive, but that was a risk I was willing to take. Some kids grow up in places without any Hasidim and never get exposed to them, and I think Hasidim are as awesome, if not more awesome, than ninjas. They are an interesting part of big-city culture. But in my defense, that image was not intended to represent all Jews, just as the underwear zombie was not intended to represent all zombies (some zombies wear pants). Hasidic Jews are, well, still Jews.
I do also understand the squeamishness that others have expressed about my choice for H. I really wanted to include that image because I thought it was beautiful and because my daughter is growing up in a city full of homeless people. We encounter so many every day. I know some people make a decision to hide the "ugliness" of city life from their kids (some people think graffiti is inherently ugly), but it's important to me not to do so. And that's really what this book was about for me in the end.
so many comments. yet so much to comment on. bravo for finding quixote. that's some amazing graffiti. and the tramp? brilliant.
you use your powers for good, dutch. for that we are grateful.
Where were you while I taught the alphabet to four sons? This would have been a hell of lot more interesting than those "other" books.
Great work.
E was the only one I really couldn't figure out. When I first looked at it, the following exchange went through my head.
brain: E as in... Edward?
me: Edward??
brain: Edward, like... Edward Gorey?
me: Maybe. I don't think it's exactly an Edward Gorey boy.
brain: Look! His mouth is open, like he's screaming. Maybe it is little Edvard Munch!
me: Let's stick with Edward Gorey.
I just looked for Edward Gorey pictures for comparison. Have you seen The Gashleycrumb Tinies, A to Z? We have the book, but I'd forgotten about it (and had never seen it in an online format).
Back to the E boy. Engineer would never have occurred to me because, well, I'm an engineer and don't look a thing like him. But along those lines, his coat could be a lab coat, so a scientist type. I like the ring of Evil Genius, but I'll only go with that if he's making angry eyebrows. I didn't think he was, but upon reinspection, I'm not so sure. Egghead works, but I don't see Einstein there.
Unless someone comes up with a better E, I'm going to go with Egghead. An Egghead named Edward, who may become an Evil Genius.
I was thinking the boy looked like he might be from the Victorian era. Maybe my brain was trying to come up with Edwardian? Mmmm, nah, I'm probably giving my brain too much credit there.
This is cool. Glad you decided to go w/ the Lulu book.
What is L btw, please? That one I don't get.
If anyone wants any other "Non Traditional" alphabet books, may I recommend a guy called Graham Base? "Animalia" is more for slightly older kids, but great fun. No Nests. Z IS for Zebras, but they are flying Zepplins! Lol! He has won awards for his lavish illustrations, too, which are gorgeous!
K - Kid Kangaroo Kidnapping Kitty Koala - is all done in '30's style, for instance. Worth checking out.
I take offense at your narrow-minded choice for J. The thought of a parent pointing to that picture and telling her child, "J is for Jew", repels me. I get that you're trying to be edgy, but come on.
If you love Hasidim so much (even more than Ninjas!), then why not give them their very own letter H?
Commenting by HaloScan
