''Back to Front and Upside Down!'' is a picture book for children by British novelist

Claire Alexander Claire Arthur Alexander or Arthur Claire Alexander (born June 16, 1945) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) and World Hockey Association (WHA) in the 1970s. Playing career After a br ...

. The book deals with the difficulty some children might face when learning how to write. Alexander was awarded the Young Readers' Schneider Family Book Award in 2013 for her work.

Premise

Students in a reading circle are invited to the principal's birthday party. Their teacher suggests they write the principal a "Happy Birthday" card. While trying to write the card, one of the students realizes his letters will sometimes be back to front, sometimes upside down and sometimes won't look like letters at all.

Reception

The book received mixed reviews, with one of them noting that it could be specially useful for students with

dyslexia Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

. Writing for

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

, the author comments that the handwritten letters found throughout the book can be hard to read, and shouldn't be emulated by readers. They also note that the character's fast improvement is "too good to be true", but ends the review by saying the book's message that everyone needs to ask for help sometimes is very clear. Alexander was praised for using progressively darker colors for the drawings to convey the character's "emotional turmoil and isolation" due to their inability to write the card and fear to ask for help. In 2013, ''Back to Front and Upside Down!'' was awarded the Young Readers' Schneider Family Book Award. The book also received the Paterson Prize for "Continued Excellence in Children's Literature", awarded by the Passaic County Community College's Poetry Center.

References

{{Reflist 2012 children's books British picture books