"Vastly informative and vastly entertaining...A scholarly and fascinating book." —Los Angeles Times

With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language.

From the first descent of the larynx into the throat (why you can talk but your dog can't), to the fine lost art of swearing, Bryson tells the

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The letter E has fallen and injured herself-- which letters will replace her and how will words be spelled without her?

Each of the three volumes contains four separate stories, which introduce words with different sounds, and is accompanied by an audio disc that provides reading instruction, complete readings of each story, and music.

Use of three-letter words and consistent vowel sounds in slightly longer stories build confidence.

"The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary began in 1857, took seventy years to complete, drew from tens of thousands of brilliant minds, and organized the sprawling language into 414,825 precise definitions. But hidden within the rituals of its creation is a fascinating and mysterious story - a story of two remarkable men whose strange twenty-year relationship lies at the core of this historic undertaking." "Professor James Murray, an astonishingly...

"An author and educator's pioneering approach to helping autistic students find their voices through poetry--a powerful and uplifting story that shows us how to better communicate with people on the spectrum and explores how we use language to express our seemingly limitless interior lives. Adults often find it difficult to communicate with autistic students and try to "fix" them. But what if we found a way to help these kids use their natural gifts...

"A brand-new graphic novel series by Dav Pilkey, the internationally bestselling author and illustrator of the Dog Man and Captain Underpants series. In Cat Kid Comic Club, Li'l Petey, Flippy, and Molly introduce twenty-one rambunctious, funny, and talented baby frogs to the art of comic making. As the story unwinds with mishaps and hilarity, readers get to see the progress, mistakes, and improvements that come with practice and persistence."--Provided...

"Peter Winceworth, a disaffected Victorian lexicographer, inserts false entries into a dictionary - violating and subverting the dictionary's authority - in an attempt to assert some sense of individual purpose and artistic freedom. In the present day, Mallory, a young overworked and underpaid intern employed by the dictionary's publishing house, is tasked with uncovering these entries before the work is digitized. As the novel progresses and their...

Consonant blends, endings, and a few sight words advance reading skills and create more complex stories. Stories and pictures to make learning alphabet sounds enjoyable.