For a child who has never held a pencil, start before letters. Kumon's My First Book of Tracing is all paths and no letters, which is right for a young 3 year old. Radke's My First Learn-to-Write Workbook opens the same way and goes on to letters, so it lasts longer for the money.
If you want to spend the least, Trace Letters by Sujatha Lalgudi is the cheapest book here and has plenty of rows. It starts lowercase at once and has no next book, so it suits a child who already holds a pencil well.
For one book across the whole pre-K year, School Zone's Big Preschool Workbook has 320 pages of letters, numbers, colours and early phonics. Handwriting is a small part of it, so add a tracing book if forming letters is the goal.
If your child's school uses Learning Without Tears, buy its own pre-K book, so home and class form letters the same way. Ask the teacher which title they use before you order.
If you want something reusable, a grooved copybook set can be used again and children like the ink that fades. Use it beside paper rather than instead of it, because the groove steers the pencil for them.
If your child is 3 or 4 and you want one line to grow along for two years, Ready! is the one we made for exactly that: strokes first, every capital with a start dot and numbered arrows, and rows that fade to blank, with Book 2 taking over for lowercase and numbers. If you want the most trusted first book and will search again in six months, Radke's is the safe buy.
