From Apple Annie to Zig Zag Zebra
Letterland characters and creator come to Tweetsie Railroad

By Jeff Eason

For centuries schoolchildren have learned the alphabet as a 26-car train of letters. “A” serves as the mighty engine and the train chugs along until the caboose of “Z” rolls past.

From “The Alphabet Song” to the home learning course Hooked on Phonics, all kinds of strategies have been used to teach kids the alphabet and the sounds that each letter is capable of making.

One of the most successful systems ever devised is the colorful world of Letterland, invented by British writer and educator Lyn Wendon in the 1960s. Letterland is inhabited by kid-friendly characters such as Annie Apple, Dippy Duck, Vickie Violet and Yellow Yo-yo Man.

For three consecutive Fridays in May, Tweetsie Railroad has helped bring Letterland to life by inviting area school children to come and meet the various characters from the popular book series. Letterland creator Lyn Wendon and her son Mark Wendon were at Tweetsie last Friday to meet with children, parents, teachers and the Tweetsie employees, many of whom were dressed in Letterland costumes.

“The whole idea of bringing Letterland to Tweetsie was Kathy Oliver’s conception,” said Lyn Wendon. “She asked our permission and we said okay. I think because everybody loves to believe that Letterland is real and she wanted to make it a real experience for them.”

Last year Letterland at Tweetsie was a one-day event. It proved to be so popular that Tweetsie and the Wendons expanded it to three Fridays this May. Last Friday the theme park was filled with kindergartners, teachers and parents as schoolchildren were bused in from Watauga and its surrounding counties.

As Lyn and Mark visited different areas of the theme park, they witnessed how Letterland has become an essential part of the American educational process. Mark wore the trademark green furry hat of Letterland character Hairy Hat Man, and was instantly recognized by the kids at Tweetsie. Along the way they met Tweetsie employees dressed as Clever Cat, Fireman Fred, Lucy Lamp Lady, Quarrelsome Queen and other characters.

Letterland, now used in schools in over 100 countries worldwide, started four decades ago when Lyn Wendon was a peripatetic special needs teacher trying to teach the alphabet to students with learning disabilities.

“It started as a romeograph (mimeograph) version,” said Lyn Wendon. “This was a situation of necessity being the mother of invention because the kids I was teaching had failed and they didn’t want to learn anymore. It was a mixture of children, some were dyslexic and some had other learning disabilities. They had lost their self-esteem and they needed something they would enjoy about the whole learning process.

“For me it was just a way of bringing the whole thing to life and make it fun for them…make it indelible.”

When Letterland proved not only to be a hit among the children but to actually help improve their reading and writing abilities, other teachers began to take note.

“As I understand it, the children who Lyn were teaching were failing,” said Mark, “and suddenly they were going back into the classroom succeeding. And not only succeeding, but also having something the other kids didn’t have. And so they started telling the other children about Letterland, who in turn asked their teachers if they could have Letterland. So those teachers found their way to Lyn. So it spread from word of mouth from children and from teachers.”

Letterland continued to slowly grow in popularity as a learning tool, spreading from school to school outward from the Wendons’ home of Cambridge Isle, England. Wendon had written a series of Letterland songs with new lyrics sung over the tunes of traditional songs. “I learned that you could tap into kids’ memory through music in a way that was supportive to the learning process…repetition with pleasure.”

Eventually Lyn’s hand-drawn and mimeographed Letterland characters were replaced by professional artists’ versions. The enhanced graphics only served to make Letterland even more popular.

“It grew because there was a need that was not being filled in a way that was enjoyable,” said Lyn Wendon. “I didn’t think it was going to go anywhere except to help a few children who had fallen behind. It’s hard to explain, it’s basically been through teacher recommendation. Because I didn’t have a commercial organization, I wasn’t expecting it to grow. But I was delighted when it did.”

In 1985 she co-published with Templar Books the debut Letterland ABC book, which sold over a million copies.

“I found myself gradually becoming a publisher,” said Wendon. “It was not my game plan at all. And we grew like topsy.”

Letterland’s popularity reached its tipping point when it was featured on Britain’s Channel 4 on television in 1988. Called a “semi-documentary” by Wendon, the Channel 4 feature showed Letterland being used in 12 different schools by children, taking snapshots of the different stages of teaching and play-acting.

In the past two decades, Letterland has expanded tremendously. Lyn’s son Mark joined the creative team and helped bring Letterland to a worldwide audience.

“Letterland is primarily for English-speaking students or English learners,” said Mark Wendon. “We do have a Spanish version, and a German version is on its way, using the same principles and, when possible, the same characters.”

Letterland made its way to the Watauga County School System in 2001 when teachers introduced it to kids at Hardin Park Elementary School. One of those teachers, Stamey Carter, has since retired from teaching and is now an independent literary consultant for Letterland, working to train teachers how to use the materials and helping to write the first American edition of Letterland.

“Since Letterland was introduced into Watauga County schools we’ve seen a rise in reading scores for first grade and kindergarten,” said Carter.

Added Mark Wendon, “What we do is we take the actual letters and give them characteristics. For example, Hairy Hat Man hates noise. That’s the reason you can hardly hear him in words. Hairy Hat Man hates to wear shoes because the noise gives him a horrible headache.

“So there’s story and language development as well. Children can become the letter or sing about them. It’s a shared adventure.”

Tweetsie Railroad will host its last Letterland event of the month on Friday, May 23rd. For more information, visit www.tweetsie.com.