We've encountered many, many alphabet books so far -- some better than others -- but most do a great job introducing the alphabet using familiar (or strange) objects or ideas. Here are some of the most memorable ones we've read:

This is probably my favorite Lois Ehlert book. I love food, and being a "list person" anyway, found Eating the Alphabet to be a very engaging, colorful way to teach children about various fruits and vegetables that start with every letter of the alphabet. While it doesn't purport to teach colors as well, it could certainly function as a color reminder/primer as well. Visually appealing, and makes you hungry!

I don't know how popular artist Dahlov Ipcar is outside of Maine, but I know that I really love her artwork style, especially when animals are involved, so we've really enjoyed this colorful board book of animals for every letter of the alphabet, complete with rhyming text. The Wild Animal Alphabet includes animals in the wild, but also a few doing anthropomorphized things like sewing or banging on drums.

It's a popular one, but Dr. Seuss's ABC is another favorite due to the silly rhymes and odd characters and words that it introduces (like a fiffer-feffer-feff or a zizzer-zazzer-zuzz!). It also takes its time and periodically reviews the alphabet up to the current point (at least in the hardcover version -- the board book is fairly abridged). 

Animalia is not only my favorite alphabet book, but it's one of my favorite picture books, period. Not only does each letter have a clever sentence about an animal doing something alliterative with that letter, but the illustrations include many hidden (and some more obvious) items that also begin with that letter. Even after many readings I'm sure I haven't found them all! Full review here.

This is one of the weirder alphabet books I've come across, but it's certainly unique. Once Upon an Alphabet is a quirky book with a succinct "story" about each letter of the alphabet, which includes at least a few other things that begin with that letter. Some of the stories are connected and get referenced later on, but others are stranger and some even a bit dark. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, and is probably geared more toward children who are quite old enough to already know their alphabets, but it's still fun and funny at times.