Elissa and her grandmother are reminiscing about their family members, and Grandmother shows Elissa the immense box of letters, postcards, and pictures that she has collected over the years. Elissa is intrigued by these letters from the past—but a question occurs to her: What would happen if there were no alphabet?

Grandmother is very clever, and wise too, and she knows the answer. She explains it to Elissa in the form of a story, in which the ancient Phoenicians—master sailors and even better merchants—devise an alphabet in order to communicate widely with their customers.

In this book, you will explore the ancient world and find out what it was like to live in a time before reading and writing. This lively and charming tale spells out—quite literally—the advent of written language in an engaging narrative that will teach your child all about where our words come from. And it will do so in such a way that they don’t even realize that they are learning!

Read on to find out what oxen and houses have in common, to learn why purple cloth was so popular, and to know what cedarwood smells like.