Summer vacation may be upon us, but that doesn’t mean that the learning need stop. Consider getting the youngsters in your life Alpha is for Anthropos, an illustrated text designed to teach children—and Greekless grownups—their Alpha-Beta-Gammas.

This is not the kind of book that admits of ready abuse, perhaps because the author, Therese Sellers, a former classics teacher, took care to conceive it with philosophic sensitivity. Tasked with teaching Greek to her four-year-old godson, Sellers despaired of her friend’s “misguided” request to instruct such a young pupil. After some reflection, it hit her: