Despite the focus on romance novels in the hot pink palace, I buy many other different types of books, including cookbooks (boy is that a problem), computer instruction guides, and children’s books. This past week I’ve found two children’s products – one book and one DVD/CD – that have rocked my socks enough that I wanted to spread the word.

My older son, known online as Freebird, has a book from Sleeping Bear Press called “H is for Homerun.” It’s an alphabetical poem with verses about baseball, from “A is for the All Stars,” to my favorite, “Z is for all zeros, a rare feat with a name: no runs, no hits, no errors, it is a Perfect Game”. He loves this book –  though some of the rhymes are a bit of a stretch. (Pun intended, totally).

So at BEA this year, I stopped at the Sleeping Bear Press booth (which was oddly not at all near the children’s books but upstairs right next to Net Galley) and told the sales reps how much I loved their books. A new one came out last week that I pre-ordered – I couldn’t not order this book: S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet.

Oh, is it fun. My favorites: “D is for the Drafts we write, from rough to finally ready, our chance to tell our good tale well, rewriting slow and steady:” and “Then E? It’s for the page we Edit, making sure all’s right: no misspelled names, no missing marks, no unclear words in sight.” Freebird loved it so much we read it twice in a row, and he usually doesn’t ever like to repeat a story.

Compared to “H is for Homerun,” it’s not as beautiful, as the illustrations in the baseball alphabet are very realistic looking while the figures in S is for Story  are more caricatures with exaggerated features. I thought Freebird would be scared of some of them, but he didn’t seem bothered aside from noting that one little girl had really, really big eyes. Some of the rhymes, as usual, are a bit of a stretch, and I don’t think that the author, Esther Hershenhorn, used the word “alas” correctly in the verse for H: “H is for Hero and Heroine, their journeys grand tales to be told, of beaten foes, and bested woes, of triumphs, alas, to behold.”

Maybe she meant “At last?”

The best part of the books is the annotations on each margin: the illustration is in the center, with the verse in a corner, and both the right and left margins are full of explanations, history, surprise facts, and commentary about that verse or letter. S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet also has writer’s tips mixed into the annotations, and quotes from famous writers including Lois Lowry, P.L. Travers and Mark Twain. The different notes on each page can make reading the story longer, but it also creates some variety if you read a different one each time, or talk about what the notes mean. They also give adults something to think about.

The fanciful, somewhat exaggerated illustrations and the varying strength of the rhymes doesn’t detract from how much a pleasure it is to read this book aloud, especially because it creates questions about writing, and telling stories – and how anyone can create one.

Sleeping Bear Books are also exceptionally glommable, so be warned. In addition to cultural alphabets, like “K is for Kabuki: A Japan Alphabet,” and “M is for Maple: A Canada Alphabet” (PLEASE let “E” be for “Eh?” is all I’m thinking – I haven’t read it yet), there’s also a whole series of alphabets about books, writing, science and music. Just try to avoid buying these from the Sleeping Bear Press collection – I’m having a hard time of it. I might have to go put Ye Olde Visa in Ye Olde Freezer.