Alphabet Books

Once a child has learned to speak with some capacity, he or she is ready to undertake his or her first academic challenge–learning the alphabet.

Learning to recognize letters and know their sounds is the bedrock of learning to read. Many parents will sing the alphabet song to their kids–and the kids will know it by heart–long before they can recognize the letters themselves.

You could fill an entire library with alphabet books without much effort. Mass marketing of alphabet books began in earnest during the 1940s. The evolution of alphabet books has been interesting and reflects trends in preschool pedagogy. Early books are straight forward and offer few visual examples to bolster the letter on the page. They were spartan by today’s standards.

These early editions almost always included both the upper and lower case letter side-by-side for instructional purposes.
It was Dr. Seuss’s ABC’s published in 1960 that broke the mold of these editions and offer a much more playful way to learn letters. From there, books became much more creative–some creative to the point that adding letters to the pages seems to be an afterthought.

Through the 1990s and 2000s, you did not see many alphabet books with both upper and lower case being taught along with a wild assortment of ideas for teaching. However, now we are seeing a trend back to more instructive books that have a strong creative flair.

No matter which books you choose to teach the child letters, no book will replace the gentle teaching of a parent or caregiver in showing and making the sound of each letter. The goal then for a parent is to choose books that they will enjoy reading along with the child. After all, you will likely read your child’s favorite alphabet book hundreds of times over a two year period–choose titles you will enjoys along with your child.

You can find alphabet books that emphasize an dizzying array of foci. From purely instructional, to flowers and plants, ocean life, animal-centric, dinosaurs, construction-themed and many more. It might be useful to identify what your child is interested in, then find a book that is themed around that interest.

The list includes alphabet books in many varieties and styles. If you can’t find one that quite fits what your looking for, simply type in “alphabet” in the search bar above and you’ll see many more titles available.

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