Good books/CDs for learning Hebrew?

Hi!

Does anybody have any good books and CDs to recommend for learning Hebrew? I've been thinking about maybe buying either the Assimil books and Cds (in French, because there doesn't seem to be any in English) or the "Hebrew from Scratch" part 1 that Ulpan uses. Does anybody have any experience from them or from any other books/Cds? I'd really like to learn the Hebrew alphabet from an early stage in the learning process. Does the Assimil book use the Hebrew alphabet thoughout the book?

Thanks for your help!