Let's Learn Katakana: Second Book of Basic Japanese Writing

before I started to read this book I only though that Katakana was used for words borrow for other countries. so with that in mind I was quite shock to find out how wrong I actually was. it is use for many more things then you would expect like names on animals and plantes. I would recomment though that you at least know Hiragana before you read this one, to get a more easy way to understand it, and it has all what you need to know like it's sisterbook "Let's learn Hiragana"

This is a slimmish textbook which focusses on both how to draw katakana, including stroke order, and when to use them- they're not just for foreign loan words as I had believed. It also mentions how the katakana were derived and why. It does NOT, however, include mnemonics or pictures to help you commit them to memory, and will not assist you in learning the alphabet quickly except by repetition and exercises. It also refers fairly often to its sister book on hiragana, which it recommends you study before katakana. This author is obviously respected as it's a recommended text for my university course. Good for more in-depth study of katakana- I didn't realise they were so useful!