About the Preschool Book

In Alphabet City, Stephen T. Johnson shows preschoolers the city in a whole new light. There are no words in the book but the vivid illustrations depict the letters of the alphabet hidden throughout the city. This unique alphabet book will have preschoolers looking for the letters of the alphabet in places that they never would have dreamed of before.

From The Reviewer

Alphabet City is a beautifully illustrated alphabet book with a one of a kind concept. Preschoolers will love finding the letters of the alphabet mixed in with the city landscape. It may be helpful for preschoolers who are working on mastering the letters of the alphabet to read this book alongside a paper with the alphabet printed clearly on it to help them find each letter. There are no words in Alphabet City. It is left up to the preschoolers to determine what letter each picture represents.

The beautiful illustrations of city buildings, streets, construction sites, and bridges will delight preschoolers. Some of the letters are more difficult for preschoolers to pick out than others but most of them are very clearly drawn. This book would be most appropriate for preschoolers who are able to recognize the letters of the alphabet and are working on the ability to write the letters of the alphabet as they will be most able to understand the illustrations and find the letters on each page.

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Hi! I'm Rachel Lister, the Preschool Education writer at PreschoolRock.com. I live in Utah with my husband and two beautiful boys. When my oldest son was born, I quit my teaching job and opened a home daycare and preschool. I love to help preschoolers learn about the world around them. They make life interesting and I can't imagine doing anything different. If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments, feel free to contact me.

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Read aloud daily for at least 15 minutes. This single habit is the strongest predictor of kindergarten reading readiness and long-term academic success.

• Use mathematical language all day: "more than," "less than," "half," "equal," "twice as much." Incidental math vocabulary builds the conceptual foundation formal math builds on.

• Expose children to multiple languages early if possible. The preschool window is the most efficient period for language acquisition the brain will ever have.

• Mistakes are how children learn. A classroom and home that treat mistakes as information rather than failure produces more confident, persistent learners.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I support a gifted preschooler who seems to need more than peers?

Gifted preschoolers benefit from depth rather than acceleration — instead of teaching next-year's content, provide deeper engagement with current concepts. A preschooler fascinated by numbers doesn't need grade-school arithmetic; they benefit from mathematical puzzles, spatial reasoning challenges, and mathematical exploration at their own depth. Social-emotional support is equally important: gifted preschoolers often have asynchronous development (advanced intellectually but emotionally typical for their age) and need appropriate peer interaction alongside intellectual challenge.

When should formal education begin for preschoolers?

Play-based learning is the developmentally appropriate educational mode for children from birth through age 6–7. Formal academic instruction (sitting at desks, worksheets, direct phonics drills) before age 6 consistently produces short-term knowledge gains but long-term motivation losses. The children with the richest preschool play experiences often outperform academically drilled peers by age 8, when the developmental advantage of play-based executive function development becomes apparent in school performance.

Related reading: See also our read-aloud guide and our kindergarten readiness guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 📚 Pre-Reading Skills — Activities that involve letters, sounds, rhymes, and print directly build the phonological awareness and letter knowledge that are the two strongest predictors of successful reading development.
• 👂 Listening & Attention — Activities that require children to listen carefully and follow directions build the voluntary auditory attention that classroom learning, reading comprehension, and conversation all require.
• 💬 Vocabulary Expansion — Every new concept, activity, and domain-specific term a child encounters expands their vocabulary — and children's vocabulary at kindergarten entry is the single strongest predictor of reading comprehension at age 10.
• 🎯 Self-Directed Learning — Learning that begins with the child's own question or interest produces the deepest understanding — and children who experience self-directed learning develop the intrinsic motivation that sustains learning throughout life.

From The Author

"Since childhood, I have been drawn to the particular energy one senses in the people, sounds, and structures, old and new, that constitute a city. The idea for Alphabet City came to me while I was walking along a city street. I noticed an ornamental keystone that looked like the letter S. Then suddenly I saw the letter A in a construction sawhorse and the letter Z in fire-escapes. At that moment, it became clear that in urban compositions I could discover the elements that form the letters of the alphabet."