Little i by Michael Hall

Greenwillow Books, 2017. ISBN 9780062383006
The alphabet letters were quite happy being what they were until one day Little i's dot fell off. It rolled down a hill, tumbled over a cliff and splashed into the sea. Little i felt weird and the other letters felt confused because now Little i looked like a number and you can't make words with numbers.
So Little i decided to find his dot and starts off on an adventure that takes him to some interesting places. His question mark boat takes him across the seas until he finds an island that has a remarkable sea passage that passes a spectacular exclamation point waterfall, through the cold dark parenthesis tunnel (with asterisk gems), through the field of lovely comma sprouts, across the spine-chilling hyphen bridge to the very edge of the land where his dot completes his journey like a full stop at the end of a sentence. But when Little i puts his dot back on he feels strange, setting his quest and his story up for an imaginative and fun end.
With bold shapes and colours, this is one of those books that seems really simple on the surface but then you wonder what sort of mind could make such a story. But then he did write Red, a crayon's story. Not only is it clever it is brilliant, so rich in so much for the very young reader. Little i feels incomplete without his dot and that he doesn't really belong in the alphabet, just as some children feel adrift if they haven't got their mum, a special friend or a favourite toy by their side and so talking about Little i's story may help them realise that they can not only survive without that security blanket but be even better for being brave enough to leave it behind. Self-confidence in who we are is such a critical part of growing up.
It is also wonderful for those who are just beginning to understand that words are constructed from letters - Hall shows this by having the letters in the words do their talking; distinguishing between letters and numerals; and maybe starting to wonder what the other marks on the page are. There is a myriad of talking and teaching opportunities as the children demonstrate their knowledge of those initial concepts about print that are part of early kindergarten assessments. Yet, whatever level the child is at for looking at the technicalities and tools of language, overall and throughout there is an engaging story and a satisfying finish which have to be at the core of anything we share with little ones if they are to love stories and reading and all that they offer.
Barbara Braxton