Sunday, January 7, 2007

Little Bitty Baby Learns Greek

I am singing the praises of a book called "Little Bitty Baby Learns Greek" by Johannah Bluedorn. Because of the title and the fact that this is a board book, you would probably think that the target audience is babies and preschoolers. However, I’m an adult, and I LOVE THIS BOOK! The first page of the book explains what will be contained in the rest of the book.......there are 24 letters in the Greek alphabet and there is a single page devoted to each letter. It shows you the correct formation of the capital and lower-case forms of each letter, as well as the proper pronunciation of the letter. It explains the exact sound that the letter makes in a word (Greek is a phonetic language, so each letter has a sound of its own, with vowels having a short and long sound). Each page has a drawing (with the letter incorporated into the drawing); the picture in the drawing represents a word with the same sound as that page’s letter makes. For example, the Greek letter Beta sounds like the b in book - that page has a picture of a little boy reading a book, and on the book is the Greek letter Beta (the capital form of Beta looks just like our capital B). The book ends with a quick reference page, listing all the Greek letters, upper and lower-case forms of each, and the sounds they make.

Yes, I believe that a young toddler could learn basic Greek by having this book read to him by his parents. However, I also think that any age person who would like to start a study of Greek would greatly benefit from this book. Because it is a board book format, it is very sturdy, and will hold up to lots and lots of use. If you or anyone in your family has an interest in the Greek language, and you’re not exactly sure where to start, I would highly recommend adding this little book to your home library. It’s a book that everyone in your family will pick up and look at, and the drawings are great! Johannah Bluedorn has done it again! (See also: "Little Bitty Baby Learns Hebrew" and other titles, by clicking on the link below)


Trivium Pursuit




 

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