“Daytime Visions: An Alphabet’’

By Isol, adapted into English by Isol and Elisa Amado, Enchanted Lion, $17.95, ages 2-7

The ABCs of Argentine author Isol’s new picture book are far from basic. There are no daffy, alliterative scenes: no aardvarks adding apples or baboons bouncing balls. Even the old, standard “X is for xylophone’’ is nowhere to be found. Instead there are whole, imagined universes conjured on each page. Some read likes scenes from longer stories. Others could be part of a dream or a secret, overheard.

Take “R’’: An adult bird with an enormous, blue feather mohawk bends down to look into the eyes of a sheepish child-bird. “Never meant to be rude,’’ read the words at the top of the page. It feels a little like avian eavesdropping.

Then there’s “E,’’ which could be a Valentine: “It’s so easy/?to be with you.’’ The words fall above and below the picture of an oversize caterpillar, content on a branch with a butterfly. But “F,’’ on the facing page, is not so tender. There’s a man, in a crown. His arms are folded and he looks peeved. A black, bushy tree is rooted beside him. “Fine, don’t speak to me’’ read the words on the page. Is the man speaking to the tree? Are the man and the tree thinking the same crotchety thought about each other? Pick one theory, then make up another. “Daytime Visions’’ is so charmingly fantastical, any tale flies.

The art, spare and fine, adds to the complexity and surprise of the scenes. Pencil plays with collage on the page. Inky, bristly calligraphy creates a visual flow that holds it all together, giving the sense that the book is a big narrative puzzle waiting to be put together.

Only when you reach the end do you realize that “Daytime Visions’’ is not a book for learning the alphabet, but one that teaches how to tell stories one letter at a time.

NICOLE LAMY