Italic Handwriting Book A Kindergarten
Book A provides practice with basic shapes and introduces italic letters.
$13.75
Quantity:
Nonreligious
Consumable
In a Curriculum Kit
Complete Course
2026 Kindergarten Curriculum Kit
Teaching a five-year-old to write is mostly about pacing—one letter, plenty of room, and a format that doesn't ask too much before his hand is ready. Book A gives you exactly that: one letter per page, generous practice space, and illustrations that hold a young child's attention without crowding the work.
The italic approach is the reason we keep coming back to this series. The letter shapes are simple and consistent, and—this is the real payoff—they're the same shapes used in cursive later. When your child moves on to joined writing, there's no new alphabet to learn, just the connections between letters he already knows. The Getty-Dubay italic method has been in print and in classrooms for over forty years.
Each page walks your child through:
- Basic shapes that form the foundation of letters
- Lowercase and uppercase letters, one at a time
- Numerals
- Space to write and draw
Best fit for a kindergartner who's ready to start forming letters with a legible, natural style.
See some sample pages from this book to know which level is the best fit.
How to Use Italic Handwriting Book A
- Start with prewriting. For the first two weeks, work through the prewriting activities in the book—writing in sand, tracing in shaving cream, drawing shapes with finger paint. These build the hand strength and control your child needs before pencil work begins.
- Two worksheets a week is a steady pace. More is fine if your child wants to do more; less is fine if he doesn't. At two per week, the book's 65 worksheets fit into about 33 weeks—enough to cover a typical school year with room for breaks.
- Partial pages count. Many kindergartners can't sustain attention through a full worksheet in one sitting. Splitting a page across two days—or doing half now and the rest after lunch—is a normal way to work through this book at this age.
Handwriting today is both a tool for learning and a professional skill. We need a handwriting style that keeps up with the demands of modern life. It needs to be legible and logical, easy to write and easy to learn.
When it comes to being understood, handwriting still matters.
And yet, as authors Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay write, “American handwriting is in a woeful state. We have become a 'please print' nation. But there is hope. We can stop mumbling on paper and become legible writers. We can go italic.”
Keep the focus on learning.
For early learners, literacy and language development are foundations of readiness, and research suggests that handwriting is a key component. Learning to write letters and form words are powerful first steps toward academic success.
A seamless transition.
With the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series, kids learn one alphabet — basic italic transitions naturally to cursive. In elementary school, handwriting is an important scaffold for basic literacy skills. For middle school students, fluent handwriting means more language arts success, and better preparation for high school.
Publisher's Information
Publisher: Getty-Dubay Productions
Authors: Barbara Getty & Inga Dubay
Age Recommendation: 5-6
Grade Recommendation: K
Faith-Based: No
Consumable: Yes
Pages: 72
Lessons: 65
ISBN: 9780982776230
Format: Softcover
Copyright: 1994
Made in: USA
Awards and Endorsements from:
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Customer photos
- September 23, 2026
Vanessa D.
This handwriting workbook has worked well for reinforcement of proper letter formation and correcting letter reversals. We’ve tried several other handwriting programs, but Getty-Dubay has been the most approachable and the easiest to incorporate into our daily lessons.
- October 5, 2024
Basic but good
KitMama
Basic print letter practice. I like that the letters are split up into families so similar shaped letters are practiced together. I laminated the blank line template sheet so my child could get extra practice on each letter.
- July 30, 2024
Love this!
Brittany G.
The kids love this!
- July 16, 2024
A must have
Sara W.
Two of our kids have now used this and it really benefited them in learning how to write and perfect their letters. It’s something they want to do everyday as well.
- April 20, 2024
extra work
Tabitha E.
I found that this and the spelling you see is redundant. The pages in this book didn't take very long to do but weren't very helpful in training my daughter to write correctly.
- December 20, 2023
Handwriting practice
Danielle F.
What makes this book different from others is that it keeps the capitol letters separate from the lowercase letters, which I really appreciate. You move through the book based on the form of the letters instead of from A to Z so if your looking to learn letters alphabetically it's sometimes a pain to have to flip through the book to find the one you're on.
- July 13, 2023
Easy handwriting practice
Sarah B.
My kindergartener did well with this book. He liked it more than the Channie's books we've had in the past. His handwriting improved a lot over the year.
- May 1, 2023
Nothing special
Lisa P.
It's a handwriting book. My daughter doesn't like it much. It does the job.
- April 28, 2023
Love this book!
Amanda F.
This book helped so much with letter identification for my non-reader. She loves coloring the coordinating pictures on each page!
- March 14, 2023
Does what it needs to!
Liza
We like this book and have no issues with it. It has improved my kindergarteners handwriting.
