Abstract: An educational device for teaching new readers to recognize characters (e.g., letters, numbers or words) may include a set of books, each having a single theme, and a tray having recesses for holding the books. Each book, and the corresponding recess in the tray, may have a shape related to the particular character that is its theme. By way of example, the set of books may include one book for each letter of the alphabet, one book for each number from one to ten or one book for each of various words that may form a sentence. The tray may take various shapes, including planar and hemispheric, with the recesses in an upward facing surface.