Lantern&Ladder

New from the press

Coloring books, for grown-ups and for small hands

Two new series, made the way the workbooks are: one clear thing on each page, and nothing fiddly.

Ready, Set, Write!

Handwriting, ages 3 to 6, three books, 5 volumes

Three handwriting workbooks for preschool and kindergarten, from the first pencil strokes to writing whole sentences.

  1. Front cover of Ready! Lines & Letters, girl editionFront cover of Ready! Lines & Letters, boy edition

    Ready! Lines & Letters

    Ages 3 to 5, 66 pages, two editions

    Little hands need practice before they can write. This book starts with the lines and curves that every letter is made of, moves on to simple shapes, then teaches letter formation for the capitals, one letter at a time.

    Buy it

  2. Front cover of Set! Letters & Numbers, girl editionFront cover of Set! Letters & Numbers, boy edition

    Set! Letters & Numbers

    Ages 4 to 6, 70 pages, two editions

    Your child knows the capital letters. Now meet their small partners, then count and write the numbers 0 to 20. Every number comes with something to count, so writing practice and early math grow together.

    Buy it

  3. Front cover of Write! Words & Silly Sentences

    Write! Words & Silly Sentences

    Ages 5 to 6, 66 pages, one edition

    Letters become words, and words become silly sentences. Your child traces first words, copies funny sentences and then writes their very own. Every sentence uses only words already taught, so nothing on the page is out of reach.

    Buy it

See the series

The personalised cover of Ready! Lines & Letters, with a child's name in the title

Personalised

Make it about your child

Ready, Set, Write! Book 1 or Book 2, printed about one child: their name in the title, a child who looks like them in the pictures, and a page where they learn to write their own name. Posted to your home, in English or Dutch.

How the personalised book works

Questions parents and colorists ask

All guides

How the books work

Three things appear on every page, in every book. They are the whole method, and a child learns them once.

  1. A dot to start on

    The pencil goes down on the dot. A child who does not know where to begin cannot begin, and guessing is how bad habits start.

  2. Numbered arrows

    Each stroke has a number and a direction, drawn along the stroke itself. The order is the Zaner-Bloser order, the print scheme most schools in the United States teach, and it is the same on every model in every book.

  3. Help that fades

    Every row runs from a solid letter to dotted copies to an empty space. By the end of the row your child is writing it alone, and neither of you had to decide when.

A page of star shapes, one solid model with a start dot, then dotted copies that get fainter, then empty boxes to draw in.
Ready! Lines & Letters, ages 3 to 5.
A number page showing a numeral to trace and a group of objects to count.
Set! Letters & Numbers, ages 4 to 6.
A write-your-own page with a word bank at the top and empty handwriting rules below.
Write! Words & Silly Sentences, ages 5 to 6.

Made by two people in Utrecht

We are a small press, two people in Utrecht. We plan every book page by page, check every page ourselves, and send the files to Amazon, who print and post each copy. The pictures start in an image generation tool and every one is checked by hand, for a line that does not close or a space too small to colour in. That is why the page counts on this site are the real ones.

More about the press

Teachers and kinderopvang

Sample pages, bulk orders and a person who answers email. If you are fitting these into a group of twenty, tell us what you need and we will tell you honestly whether these books do it.

For schools

What we are working on

Every series above has a next title in the making. If you want to hear when one is ready, the list below is the only way we will tell you.

  • Dutch paperbacks

    The three workbooks are in Dutch as a printable PDF already. The paperback, for a Dutch shelf, is next.