Author: Jude Isabella
Illustrator: Kathy Boake
Publisher: Kids Can Press
# of Pages: 44 ((in the digital, ebook ARC))
Release Date: 1 September 2013
Summary: This guide to language takes readers on a trip of the tongue, exploring how languages -- spoken, written and sign -- originate and change over time.
Review: I like languages a lot. I speak two of them fluently and wrote one of my undergraduate theses on how language impacts learning. But words (except for the memorization of vocabulary words) are being removed from curricula around the country. There's no more phonics in elementary classrooms and grammar and usage rules are no longer a part of middle school language arts. So I really loved the idea of this book because it presents information about language in a way that's incredibly interesting and accessible for tweens and teens.
I was impressed by how much information was in this book. It's incredibly comprehensive and covers how we learn to talk as infants as well as the development of languages around the world. I especially loved the section on Cockney - it's the first explanation I've ever read that made sense during my first read and anyone who knows anything about how cockney is formed knows that's quite a feat!
I also enjoyed the layout of the book - no section is overly long and the sidebars and boxes do a great job of keeping teens and tweens reading despite short attention spans. My only criticism of the book is its illustrations. They're creepy and they distract from the information in the book. The eyes are especially disconcerting.
This is definitely a book that I would purchase for my classroom if I still had one and, short of that, it's one that I'll be gifting to my English teacher friends!
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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