The abecedarium was a popular format in children’€™s books from the middle ages through the Victorian period used to teach the alphabet and moral principles simultaneously. Author Rebecca Reid notes that there may have been a biblical precedent. The 22 stanzas of Psalm 118 in the bible use the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order. I think the most well known version is Edward Gorey’s The Eclectic Abecedarium which is based on the primers of the late 18th and early 19th century. A modern alphabet book that looks interesting is The Z Was Zapped by illustrator Chris Van Allsburg.