A to Z Funny Fables All in Alliteration:
Plus Plenty Of Pretty Pictures

"Cleone Reed's extravaganza of alliteration was born from this unique time in our lives, when social isolation has afforded us time and opportunity to explore what lies beyond our busyness. Reed's whimsy becomes a carpet ride for kids (and adults) of any age, zooming from barnyard standards to exotic animal species. Best of all, this delightful and funny book becomes an invitation to stretch our curiosity and appreciation of what lurks in our own imaginations, ready to pop out for our amazement.

She spent countless hours doing extensive research on the Internet for animals, birds, and fish that started with each letter if her mind was short of ideas. Who ever knew about these animals, Uakari, Uguisu, or Urial for the letter U, for example? The world is so full of exotic and beautiful creatures, and doing Google searches revealed more than she could have ever imagined!

The book is fully illustrated with a wildlife collage for each letter of the alphabet before each story. Discovering so many animals in various categories all over the world, she summarized her findings in photo collages of animal types, for example a collage of 50 ground animals and a collage comparing wallabies with kangaroos. "A to Z Fun Fables Full of Flavor" has over 60 images, but because many of these have up to 25 small images within a collage, there are literally hundreds of images in this book.

So yes, this is a silly book, but it is also very educational! At least, it certainly was for her! And at age 75, Reed is still thriving on learning. This is a book that could be used by speech therapists to help people enunciate as many feel like tongue twisters. Examples:

• "Barnaby Bob Brooks, the Beastly Blue Baboon Bought a Bigger, Brighter Blue Basketball than his Best Buddy, Baby Brother Byron Barack Baboon."
• "Chloe, a Comical Captivating Creative Caring Clown, from Cleone, California, Coasted in her Cute Clown Car to the Clown Convention in Cortez, Colorado."
• "Samantha Sampson, a Studious Science Student, Screamed, 'If Snails or Snakes Spin into Space, Scared Students will Scram!'”

And when Reed came up with the idea to have people participate by writing alliterations to go with their initials, well, the fun was just nonstop and kept spreading! Yes, FUN is one of the author's absolute top values.

NOTE: As many friends and authors contributed to the large version of this book, in the Acknowledgments below, there are links to each author's books.

Acknowledgments for A to Z Fun Fables: Amusing Allegories in Alliteration PLUS Worldwide Wildlife Wonders, ETCETERA is an 8 x 10 book of 210 pages

(Versus this small version which is 6 x 9 and 94 pages and available through this website)

As this book progressed, it became a nation-wide-plus community project as family, friends, and authors were invited to participate by writing alliterations for this book. Some people never knew what an alliteration was, thus it was gratifying to teach them and then receive their alliterations.

The youngest person to write an alliteration one was only four years old! I want to especially acknowledge Marsha (Marty) Barth, author of The Shattering II because not only did she participate but she got her family to participate: her son, her daughter, and seven grandchildren (yes, even the four-year-old!) And she became a dear supportive friend in the process, even though we have never met in person.

Likewise, Lynette Louise, author of Miracles are Made, was more than a contributor but another author who I have never met in person but is nonetheless a dear friend and confidante.

Two other authors were so prolific that I had to devote an entire page to them: Holley Kelley, author of Sunrises and Sunsets, and Randy Noblitt and Pamela Perskin Noblitt, editors of Ritual Abuse in the Twenty-first Century.

How wonderful it was to reconnect with some of our authors in such a fun way. Other authors I want to acknowledge are as follows: Jenny Paschall, author of Stefi; Gabriel Constans, author of Buddha’s Wife; Ken LaVigne, author of Coach the Soul; Adam Powell from the UK, author of History’s Worst; Malcolm Kushner, author of The Official Book of Mob Humor; Robert (Bob) Reed, my husband, owner of Robert D. Reed Publishers, and author of Flightmares; Tom Massey, author of eight books with RDR Publishers, including The Shovel; Cal Samra, author of The Physically Fit Messiah and In Pursuit of Health and Longevity; Karen Trolan, author of I Can Still Do It!; Steven Salmon, author of It’s a New Life!; Colin Ingram, author or After We Die; Susan Opalka author of Going Out of Style; Judy Woods-Knight, author of Teaching School is a Scream!; Rev. Robin Haruna, author of The Ten Commitments; Brenda Lee, author of Out of the Cocoon; and Garry J. Peterson, author of SHATTERED TRUTH, ALIEN DISRUPTION and Who Put Me in Charge? And his delightful wife Vaune Peterson.

My sister Peggy Leah was one of my most fun and prolific contributors from my personal life. My love for her knows no bounds. Love also goes to my sister Kate Rakini, even though she did not contribute. She at least gave me the courtesy of telling me why: she hates alliterations! Plus she gave me ideas for further research for Part Two.

My step-daughter Tanya Barron was the first relative on my husband’s side to respond. My brother-in-law Harry Reed was unique in his contribution, doing one for each letter of his first name, as did my step-son Alan Reed and his wife Karmen. Absolutely delightful contributions.

Friends from far and wide participated, and I want to personally acknowledge and thank them: my friend of 60 years and to whom this book is dedicated, Norann Lafon. And to Donna Belt, Janet Hiser, Anne Gilbert, Anna Bell, Myra Lawson, Gary and Jeannett Saks, Connie Madden, Estela and Makoto Ohashi, Norann Lafon, Becky Jo Flake, Weld Champneys, Cathy Upton, Kathleen Morey Bailey, Penny Jennings, June Davies, Grant Prescott, Jessica Bryan, Victoria Tierney, Gina Allison, Annette Whelan, Maryanne Grove, Yemaya Wind, Dough Walberg, Jane Ujhazi, and Rick Moore. Our book designer, Amy Cole, wrote one with her son using his initials, so Eddie Cole, age 7, is my youngest contributor besides Marsha Barth’s grandchildren.

Dewa Alit Arbawa, our guide when we visited Bali in 2012, the contributor from the farthest away, contributed and taught me two words in English that I never heard before!

Brunhilde Mohl, my "soul sister" from Lubeck, Germany slid under the wire and is in the softcover version of my book. 

Much love and appreciation goes to my son, Paul Jermstad. Writing this book brought forth a most wonderful phone connection with him that I will always treasure as a gift. The hardest part of living two thousand miles from family is missing him and my grandson Owen.

Worth a second mention is my dear husband, Bob Reed. I highly appreciate his patience as I spent countless hours doing research, rewriting and tweaking this book, often getting up in the middle of the night for just one more thought that couldn’t wait until morning.

Available through this website OR through Amazon

ISBN: 979-1-944297-71-8

eBook: 978-1-944297-72-5 Available on Amazon

94 pages, $14.95 

THE LARGE VERSION that is in hardcover or softcover and is 210 pages long is here: BOOK ON BLURB: ISBN: 978-1-944297-64-0, 210 pages, 8 x 10