Illustration: Learn the Hungarian alphabet with Anna Kövecses

I distinctly remember being absolutely horrified when first learning the alphabet, that “M” (for Maisie) was represented in Letterland by “Munching Mike”, who not only had a boy’s name, but was also a giant, mechanical monster who ate a lot. Naturally, I wanted to be “Talking Tess”. Alas, I didn’t have the very talented and super nice Anna Kövecses to create my very own alphabet book, customised so that each letter corresponded to something I liked.

It’s a beautiful book, too. Designed and illustrated by Anna as a personal project to teach a four year old girl the 44 letters of the Hungarian alphabet on her summer holiday, it boasts a whole selection of sumptuous illustrations, in the kinds of colours which recall years at primary school as seen through a haze of warm nostalgia. Characters and landscapes alike are illustrated with bucket-loads of charm. Now then, to learning Hungarian…