To Do

<P>"Alphabets and names make games and everybody has a name and all the same they have in a way to have a birthday," muses Gertrude Stein in <I>To Do: A Book of Alphabets and Birthdays</I>. Written in 1940 and intended as a follow-up to her children's book <I>The World Is Round</I>, published the previous year, <I>To Do</I> is a fanciful journey through the alphabet. Each letter is represented by four names (including Gertrude for "G") and features a short story told in verse. "[This is] a birthday book I would have liked as a child," said Stein of <I>To Do</I>.<p>Publishers rejected the manuscript as too complex for children, and it remained unpublished during Stein's lifetime. A text-only version issued from Yale University Press in 1957. Now, more than seventy years after Stein penned the story, <I>To Do</I> is appearing with illustrations, realizing the author's original concept for the book. Giselle Potter's witty and stylish illustrations provide a perfect complement to Stein's uniquely whimsical world of words, creating a truly delightful, often hilarious book that adults and children alike can appreciate and love.