If you don’t count repeats, there are only seven different letters in “the alphabet”: T, H, E, A, L, P and B. Now you see why this question catches so many people off guard. If you said ...

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet. But how did they get there, and why do they look the way they do? Michael Rosen looks for answers in his new book Alphabetical.

G’s that look like I’s, F’s that sound like “Waw,” and Q’s that look like monkeys — man, was our alphabet a mess. That’s because many of our letters began as Egyptian hieroglyph ...

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet. But how did they get there, and why do they look the way they do? Michael Rosen looks for answers in his new book Alphabetical.