McDonald’s Happy Meal Books – ABC of Toronto

Popular illustrator Per-Henrik Gürth has created a playful alphabet book to showcase all the highlights and wonders in the city of Toronto. Each letter gets its own page (or two pages) and features an illustration and an explanatory sentence about a different Toronto attraction or activity. Both a capital and a lowercase letter begin the sentence, and the featured word for that page also begins with a capital letter to set it off. There are things to see: “Dd is for Dinosaur, stretching out at the Royal Ontario Museum.” There are things to do: “Pp is for Picnic, at Trinity Bellwoods Park.” And there are iconic experiences: “Mm is for Maple Leafs — go team!”

Canadian animal characters (bears, moose, foxes and the like), familiar to readers of the other titles in Gürth’s popular Canada Concept Books series, are the ones doing the touring in the book. Gürth’s illustration style is friendly and inviting to the youngest children, using bold outlines and bright colors that really pop. The simple drawings provide helpful connections to the vocabulary words for pre-readers being introduced to the alphabet. This book would work perfectly for teaching young children (residents or visitors) about the sights in Toronto, and could also be used as part of a social studies lesson on Canada or on cities in general. With so much going on in the artwork, it makes for a fun, interactive read with small children as well.