Man was a reader before he became a writer, a reader of what Coleridge once called the mighty alphabet of the universe." Now let's consider, again, the case of our humble plastic flowerpot.

Just after Isla McNabb's second birthday, Jason and Amanda McNabb found their Oldham County home littered with letters — little plastic alphabet letters, to be precise. They were everywhere. In ...

This has meant buying a lot of alphabet sets and flashcards. For Isla, learning words is like a game. Gifted people "need one thing, and that is to be challenged," Brown said.