Remembering the Kana by Helmut Morsbach, James W. Heising, Kazue Kurebayashi (2001, Paperback)

I picked up this book to help me decipher much of the Japanese text I work with in my business, and it has really helped. With simple imagery and playful mnemonics, hiragana and katakana (the more basic forms of written Japanese) become less intimidating. Taken along to a basic Japanese language class, this book becomes even more helpful, especially when doing your homework!

To add to the fun, the book is divided into hiragana on one side, then flip the book over and hello, it's katakana on the other. The reader is guided through each part of the alphabet, but not in order. Instead we are introduced to the letters out of order, given the graphic "roots" of the character from the original kanji script, and shown the proper way to write it. In the end it all makes more sense, and it does work.

With a list price of $14.95 for a soft cover edition, this is an affordable addition to your Japanese language studies, suitable for both teens and adults.