The Alphabet: how Pine Cone and Pepper Pot (with the help of Tiptoes Lightly and Farmer John) learned Tom Nutcracker and June Berry their letters

We are becoming obsessed with all of Reg Down books but this one is particularly hilarious and engaging! The stories are magical and also help build deeper connections to the alphabet, and yet he keeps the adults interested too. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!

This book has been such a game changer in our homeschooling. My child was having problems getting into learning her ABC’s. Prior to this book she was bored and didn’t like it, but this book brings learning the alphabet into a new realm. It’s funny and creative and has inspirational drawings that are easy for a child to copy into their workbooks if needed.

We purchased this book to teach our children the alphabet letters, and what fun it is! The stars of the book are two silly and fun-loving, but also reverent and earnest, gnomes, who make their bodies into the different alphabet shapes as part of teaching the letters to two children. Once a week we read a new chapter, then our children get to write the letter and make the letter shape by holding their body in a position that forms the letter's shape. I couldn't ask for a more perfect alphabet-learning resource and wish to extend great thanks to Mr. Down for his delightful book.

My 5 year old LOVES this book. The characters are charming, quirky, and full of life. We've been doing a chapter a week, to practice writing each letter, and she's on the edge of her seat waiting to see what the next chapter holds. We've gone back and read past chapters again and again-- which is great for practice and fun for her to hear the story. Pine Cone and Pepper Pot are well-loved characters here for their silly nature and their crazy ideas of ways to remember how to write each letter. Now that my daughter has images to put to each letter, and stories, she's remembering how to write them with delight.I would absolutely recommend this book. I rarely (if ever) buy books new over $10, but the book has been worth every penny and I would absolutely purchase it again!

I love how the story of tiptoes lightly in the previous books continues on but this story teaches about the alphabet.

I edited some of the words used in the book, but the drawings and overall stories are great. It is fairly supportive of the Waldorf philosophy. We incorporated it asAA secondary support for learning and practicing letters and drawings in a fun way. My children loves the stories.

I think it is wonderful, I love all the tiptoes stories, the illustrations are enchanting, I highly recommend it also to teach english as second language to children

My son is in 1st grade at a Waldorf school and this is the perfect book to accompany his learning of the alphabet. We read B and D last night, and he was recanting the stories this morning at breakfast and still laughing at the 'waddle waddle quack quack duck" line. The stories are a good length for this age, and even my older son enjoyed hearing these and remembering when he had stories for his letters.

Would recommend it again. Used it to engage my 7, 4, and 2 year old in their English lessons. Was one of the books we used in our homeschooling curriculum

We are loving this book, brilliant stories for learning letters :)

This sentence drives me nuts "how Pine Cone and Pepper Pot (with the help of Tiptoes Lightly and Farmer John) learned Tom Nutcracker and June Berry their letters". Whether 'how Pine Cone and Pepper Pot learned Tom ...their letters' is vaguely acceptable or not, it definitely sets the tone for the whole book as a tone of irritation! Unfortunately. Perhaps it is this entrenched bad beginning that then spreads a bad taste throughout that one then can't escape from. It could be felt as irony, that learning the alphabet is the rudimentary step of learning English beautifully and "how Pine Cone and Pepper Pot ... learned ..Tom Nutcracker and June Berry their letters" is far far indeed from beautiful language. I think the author should succumb to the several complaints and queries and change this baggy quirk.

Beautiful illustrations.

While this book might help with stories for the letters and the forming of the letters, it does not help with learning letter sounds at all. Rather disappointed.