The PDF was a scan of the very first ABC book used in his great-grandfather’s time — from 1908, before the Latin alphabet was even standardized for Albanian. The pages were full of strange letters, some from the old Bashkimi alphabet, and hand-drawn illustrations: a bletë (bee) next to a burrë (man), a qen (dog) chasing a qilim (carpet).
One winter evening, his granddaughter, Era, found the file. "What's this, gjysh?" she asked.
Gjon wept. "They said the old book was destroyed in the war. But here it is — alive."
Receive an original, easy-to-print template by e-mail, directly to your home. Ideal for practicing!