Wikijunior talk:Flower Alphabet/Z

What is the point of this "book", exactly? The selection of flowers is weird, some of the names are unpronounceable by the average adult, let alone a child (Cichorium, indeed – what's wrong with "chicory"?). Depending on where they live, most pre-readers will never have seen half of these plants. The names have not been chosen to be easy or straightforward to spell, or to pronounce (Eustoma for example, sounds to a child as though it starts with U, and Xeranthemum with a Z). Then the "Hyacinth" is not a hyacinth but a Water-hyacinth, a totally different species; the "Lily" is a Daylily; the "Marigold" is a French Marigold; the "Nasturtium" is commonly known as watercress (what most people, in the UK at least, would recognise as a "Nasturtium" is actually Tropaeolum majus); the orchid is a lousy photo (the Jacob's rod isn't great, either); the "Ulster Mary" is an Alstroemeria (and should we be encouraging the use of an incorrect name that is a corruption of the correct one?); the photo of the violet is such a huge close-up that it looks ridiculous; the woodbine is an American wild Clematis species (and looks like the plant that would more often be known, in the UK at least, as traveller's joy, or old man's beard when in seed – in the UK, woodbine is honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum); and Xeranthemum is an obvious sign of the desperation of this project… What a mess! SiGarb (talk) 17:55, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Why don't you improve it then instead of being a drive-by critic? -- Adrignola talk contribs 18:16, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Because I think the whole point of the book needs to be discussed. What is its proposed audience? Where are they based? For a world-wide English-speaking audience the selection would be different from one in the USA, or the UK. Should the choices be garden plants, ideally, or wild ones? Or just the most striking pictures available? Should the layout be more consistent from page to page? Should letters be included (Aa, Bb etc)? Etc. It just doesn't seem to have been thought through. SiGarb (talk) 18:42, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Uses
This (and other alphabet books) would be a pretty cool resource for kindergartens. I may make a printable, staple-able book version. One limitation there is that many schools don't print in color. Is there a wiki coloring book project going on anywhere? 173.8.113.1 (discuss) 14:15, 15 February 2012 (UTC)