Alphababble

Alphabet books are enduring form of children’s literature, dating back to at least the sixteenth century in Europe. Hornbook, battledore, primer are various forms of early alphabet books offering strategies for children to learn to read. In this folly, children’s book author and illustrator Julie Pashkis returns with her second Two Ponds Press imprint: Alphababble. In dip pen and black ink, Pashkis created the lettering and drawings then digitally printed using permanent ink on Rives BFK paper. Each page of the book contains hand-coloring and calligraphy, rendering each book unique—not just in the manuscript quality, but with different words and color variation across the edition of thirty. Claudia Cohen has bound the work in an elaborate full calf designer binding, offering the reader a playful suggestion of what will be found between the covers.