The ABCs of Metallica

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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I'm struggling to come up with something to say about this. I want to go on for a few hundred words, but the book is too short for that. And honestly, if the concept doesn't make you curious enough to check it out, it really doesn't matter what I say.

But, oh, well—let's give it a shot.

This is your basic A-B-C's book, with a short burst of rhyming text starting with consecutive letters, acrostic poem style. The focus of this book is the history, personnel (Cliff Burton, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo, anyway), and music of Metallica. Just your typical picture book, really. Kid-friendly, but Metallica fans who aren't afraid to be silly should be able to enjoy it, too.

It's a little wordy for a picture book, but nothing terrible. I don't know how much of the text Metallica is really responsible for and how much Abrams should get the credit for (my hunch is more the latter), but that's not important. There's some nice info, cute rhymes (sure, some of the rhymes are stretches, but who cares?), and fun ways to come up with something for every letter.

The illustrations are great. Again, kid-friendly but adult-friendly, too. McLeer is a Graffiti and Tattoo artist and it really comes through—I can see my son, a real Metallica fanatic, getting a couple of these tattooed on him, actually.

It's cute, it's fun, it's a great idea—and proceeds are going to charity. Grab a copy, really.