Cultural Writing. Children's Nonfiction. Art by Moises and Armando Jimenez. Photographs by K.B. Basseches. Every ABC book worth its cover price is bound to have bright colors and big letters. But not every ABC book has magical hand-carved animals to illustrate every letter. And very few alphabet books present those letters in more varieties than English! The famous folk artists, brothers Moises and Armando Jimenez, carved the wonderful animal figures that illustrate each letter in ABECEDARIOS. Working with their wives and children in the beautiful village of Arrazola in Oaxaca, Mexico, they carved and painted each enchanting animal by hand. Cynthia Weill works at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City. She is the co-author with Pegi Deitz Shea of Ten Mice for Tet (Chronicle Books, 2003), a book inspired by the Vietnamese embroidery she saw while working in international relief in Hanoi, Vietnam. She is trained as an art historian and studies the process of folk artisans around the world.