Italic Handwriting Series Book A [Paperback]

Barbara Getty (Author), Inga Dubay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1994 | ISBN-10: 0876780923 | ISBN-13: 978-0876780923 | Edition: 3

This is the first of a seven book series (K-6th grade), providing instruction in italic handwriting. It is designed for the beginning student of handwriting and is recommended for preschool, kindergarten, and/or early first grade.

The twenty-six lowercase letters and the twenty-six capitals are introduced one letter per page. Letters are arranged in the order of lowercase families, which group letters with similar strokes together and progress logically from simple to more complex forms.

Every page has models to trace, letters to write beginning at the dot indicators provided, and in the blank spaces, with a "best" letter box to complete on each alphabet page, showcasing the child's best work for that particular letter.

The books were designed so that a child may begin anywhere in the series, even though they have never before learned italic. Each book begins with a comprehensive review for that particular level. For example if a child is in the 4th grade, and can write at that grade level, they can begin with Book E without having to work through any of the previous books, adding to the versatility and cost-effectiveness of this series.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I am behind this handwriting 100%. Everyone can read it. It’s easy to teach, and the results are beautiful..." -- Val Hornburg, Teacher and winner of the Miriam Joseph Farrell Award for Distinguished Teaching

"Inga Dubay and Barbara Getty deserve the thanks of every teacher and every parent. It’s a breakthrough at last!" -- Betty Edwards, PhD, Author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

"My daughter’s handwriting has improved dramatically in just two months of sporadic use. I can now read everything..." -- Homeschooling parent, Washington, Pennsylvania

About the Author

Barbara Getty, MAT, has taught calligraphy and handwriting for over 25 years, and elementary school for 14 years. She has been an instructor at Lewis and Clark College, Portland Community College and Portland State University (in Portland, Oregon), currently conducts workshops on calligraphy and italic handwriting, and was featured on CNN. She studied with Lloyd Reynolds and Jacqueline Svaren. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and published in International Calligraphy Today. She is a graduate of Lewis and Clark College, did postgraduate work at Portland State University, receiving her MAT from Lewis and Clark College.

Inga Dubay, BA, has taught calligraphy at the Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland, Oregon, since 1975, and was Book Arts Department Head for six years. She also taught at Portland State University and has conducted numerous calligraphy and handwriting workshops across the country including several International Calligraphy Conferences. She studied at Mills College, received her degree from the University of Oregon, and did post-graduate work at the Art Academy in Oslo, Norway, the University of Oregon, and the University of California, Berkeley. She studied calligraphy with Lloyd Reynolds and Lois McClelland. Her work has been shown in national and international juried and invitational exhibitions, and has been published in Calligraphy Review, Martha Stewart Living and Lettering Arts.

Both authors travel all over the country giving seminars to physicians and medical professionals on how to write legibly.

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Portland State Univ Continuing; 3 edition (November 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0876780923
• ISBN-13: 978-0876780923
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > Education & Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Handwriting

More About the Author

Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay conduct seminars nationally and internationally. They are the
co-authors of WRITE NOW: The Getty-Dubay Program for Handwriting Success - which has sold nearly 1 million copies and is now in it's Third Revised Edition (Aug. 2011), as well as the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series, and Italic Letters: Calligraphy and Handwriting. They have been featured in numerous publications including American Medical News, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post as well as on media networks such as ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, NPR and PBS.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 69 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine book, but be informed March 19, 2000

By From_Plano_TX

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

You should know this about the book. It is for pre-school or kindergarten. It is for printing in italic style. If you want your child to learn "block printing", this is not the book for you. Personally, I think a child should know how to do block printing, sometimes called traditional manuscript. If you buy into this series, you'll want the instruction manual too. If you just want to teach/learn the italic cursive, start with book D in this series. Be warned. If you or your child likes the "loopy" cursive, this is not for you. Italic cursive, starting in book D, does not have loops. It looks a bit different. It is a major alternative to the old fashioned way of doing cursive. Remember those goofy capital "Q"s that looked like a numberal "2"? Italic cursive gives you a Q that looks like a Q, unlike what I saw as a child. I recommend considering this series.

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Teach this to your kids March 13, 2004

By Lawrence A. Monical

Format:Paperback

I lived in Portland, OR, where the authors convinced the school district to test this method in place of older printing and writing curriculum.

About a year after teaching began, I was at a pizza parlor between Portland and a suburban town. There had been a kid's contest or drawing of some sort that required written entry forms, and a large group of winning forms was pinned to a wall. The result of this method was graphically, forcefully and wonderfully on display: all the entrants with Portland addresses (1st and 2nd graders, I think) had filled their blanks with beautifully clear, if tentative, italic printing, while kids from the suburban town had provided the usual near-illegible scrawl. I was astonished.

I can't think of a better, clearer testimony to the practical effect of this method and these books than the entry forms on that wall. If your kids need help with their handwriting, or are interested in improving it, get these books. Even better would be to convince your school district to investigate this method.

And no, italic printing and script WILL NOT strip individuality and "personality" from a kid's writing; it will make it easier to express it.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to teach, easy to learn, easy to read March 29, 2007

By Lydia Joyce

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Italic handwriting is the most traditional style still in use. Originally developed in Italy in the 1500s to be an extremely clear, easy to read and write style, it spread and became a dominant form of handwriting until the 1700s, when the simple, clear style was rejected in favor of elaborate, almost Rococo styles that emphasized elegance over communication and legibility.

The difficulty in reading documents written in the various "loopy cursives," as they are commonly called, was a problem from the beginning, and later systems trying to correct the problem by introducing new ball-and-stick prints and simplifying the loops did little to help.

Fortunately, italic has been rediscovered. It is the style most commonly taught in adult handwriting remediation programs--in hospitals, for instance, where messy handwriting can kill--and it has many advantages over the self-consciously ornate "loopy cursives."

First, it is built upon natural hand motions. No ball-and-stick that, at the best of times, looks juvenile and is exceedingly slow and is usually badly distorted at higher speeds. No more loops flying in ever direction, distorting the shapes of the words. Instead, the entire system is based upon a few, very simple stroke patterns which are combined to form well-shaped and highly legible letter. Second, learning cursive is simply a matter of joining the letter-shapes already learned in standard ways. No spending a year or two of painful memorization and then readjustment. The result is a handwriting style that is easy to learn and easy to read and that looks adult. Why would you teach your child a style of handwriting that looks immature when it is done "right" because it is so unweildy that no mature writer retains it?

The Getty-Dubay Italic series has neatly packaged an italic handwriting style in a way that is very easy to teach and learn. They present the letters in a logical order and provide many tips and pieces of advice broken down in a sensible fashion along the way. Rather than spending hours and hours teaching them a style of handwriting that will, more likely than not, result in a mess and then RETEACHING them again when it comes time to switch to cursive, teach them beautiful, clear handwriting from the start and use the extra time teaching typing or something worth while.

There is no Getty-Dubay font that I know of, but there are two freeware italic fonts, Jarman and Jardotty. Search for them on the web--they are available in several places. I believe that there are two letters that are formed slightly differently than in the Getty-Dubay style.