Alfavitario: A Greek Alphabet Book for Children

Methods of teaching small children how to read and write the Greek language have changed substantially over the last 50 years, but the beautiful alphabet books, used as teaching aids in the 1930s and 1940s, continue to fascinate modern generations. This facsimile reprint presents one of these jewel-like books, first published in Athens in 1938 and recently obtained by the Gennadius Library through the generosity of Lloyd E. Cotsen. The book presents, in short texts and pictures, the lives of three children over the course of a year. It starts at the end of the summer, when the whole family leaves the countryside to move back to the city, and follows the children through the autumn, winter, and spring, to the start of the following summer. The team of writers who compiled the book include noted Greek literary figures such as Alexandros Delmouzos, Pavlos Nirvanas, Zacharias Papantoniou, and Manolis Triantafyllidis, while the illustrations are by the well-known painter Konstantinos Maleas.