A is for Apple Volume 1 (2024 Edition)

This completely revised edition of A is for Apple is intended for pupils who are learning to read as well as for older students who are currently handicapped by their poor reading and spelling skills. Following the classical method of instruction, this two-volume primer teaches traditional content and uses traditional methods that have been proven successful. It seeks to accommodate the general developmental stages of children using the trivium—grammar, logic and rhetoric. Unlike many early readers, which are illustrated with inane stock cartoons, the A is for Apple textbooks appeal to and foster the innate aesthetic sensibilities of children. One of the textbook's noticeable features is that the reading content reflects ordinary everyday life. There are stories about dogs, rashes, cutting grass, spending time with dad, eating a picnic lunch, drawing pictures, flavors of ice cream, laughing, planting peas, being sad, making a paper tiger, doing something ‘wrong,’ knocking on a door before entering, and being ‘just average.’ The stories are sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, sometimes ironic, sometimes straightforward, but all of them contain content that every child can relate to in some way. Most importantly, the stories do not attempt to put forward any social stance, but rather reflect the life that children experience day to day. Prerequisites include knowing the consonants and their sounds, but not necessarily blends, digraphs or diphthongs. The illustrations were drawn by an award-winning artist.