"Minnesota's Hidden Alphabet"

When I first opened up this book, kindly sent to me by the fine folks at the Minnesota Historical Society Press, I thought, oh, this is cute. Who do I know with young kids that I could give it to when I'm done?

Sad news for people with young kids--I'm keepin' it. It's just too adorable and too delightful to gift. Except maybe if I have grandkids someday. And even then, that's an if.

This fun and charming book--yes, I'm heaping adjectives here, it's deserved--finds evidence of the alphabet all over the state. The photo credits at the end list, among others, locations as far-flung as Little Johnson Lake near the Canadian border to Blue Mounds State Park in the southwest corner of the state.

How the alphabet is represented is half the fun. There's a whimsical approach to language used here. Instead of being completely literal ("G is for Green"), G stands for "Gracing gritty lakeside shores," and it's a snail found on Rabideau Lake.

Or, brought to you by the letter P, a fiddlehead fern:

P because they're "Peeking, sneaking all around."

An utterly delightful book. Sorry I'm not giving mine away. Go buy your own copy. You need one. Trust me, you do.