Ok, here's the deal: a good simile does more than note physical similarities; it adds an additional dimension to the thing being described. If I say that a tree's leaves are like butterfly wings, this communicates something about the shape of the leaves, sure, but also the essence of the leaves themselves, which are perhaps delicate, fluttering, tremulous, and ephemeral (like a butterfly). A beautiful exploration of grief, hope, and what it means to be human, Cameron weaves themes of ethics, AI, friendship and first love with a compelling mystery and bewitchingly-described Scottish location. This is an outstanding middle-grade debut from one of my favourite authors.” Simon James Green, author of Life of Riley It might be that family and friends give them the strength they need to stand up for themselves, their actions and show the world who they both really are, and be proud of that.

The emotional appeal of handwriting and the emotional reveal of animal phrases. Should children be taught cursive writing in school, or is their time better spent studying other things? A handwritten note and a typed one may use the very same words, but handwritten version may seem much more intimate. Plus, English is full of grisly expressions about animals, such as there’s more than one way to skin a cat and until the last dog is hung. The attitudes these sayings reflect aren’t so prevalent today, but the phrases live on. Finally, the centuries-old story of the mall in shopping mall. Plus, agloo, dropmeal, tantony pig, insidious ruses, have a yen for something, a commode you wear on your head, a tantalizing word game everyone can play. What a clever book! Sophie has used a speculative idea - this book is set in a world where, when people speak, their words appear as actual, physical things - and used it to highlight a very real problem - when people can't speak, for any reason, they are often treated as lesser than the people around them, less intelligent and less able. Sophie's two characters, one silent through anxiety and one because English is her third language and she's not very fluent yet - show this wonderfully. This makes sense because the whole thing reminded me of FNI, making me sad-nostalgic, and half-tempted to hike up to Brooklyn and compete as Punnsylvania 6-5000 (steal it and die, bitches). The regulars, the joy of doing well, the fear of flopping, the brain freeze in which you forget every pun you know during those 90 seconds: it's all so much like Friday Nite Improvs it hurts. Berkowitz competes and hangs out with these people, trying to understand the allure, get better at puns, and--on at least one amusing occasion--get high and record a podcast.It was really nice to see how Gala gradually adjusted to living in Scotland and how much her opinion of the place changed towards the end of the book.

His description of people is even better. As someone who knows what this guy looks like, his description of one punner as “thin, wolfishly handsome, like the star of every student film ever submitted in good faith to a major film festival” (75) is absolutely friggin spot-on. I read that and kind of Owen Wilsoned a squinty wayyow in assent. There’s also the couple that looks like “different eras of Rachel Maddow” and countless other breezy metaphors. I am an inveterate punster (yes, I could have said in vertebrate...), so when I saw this, I had to read it. It was painful. I love a well-crafted story leading up to a beautiful groaner of a pun. These competitions are about rapid fire punning to random categories. The champs groan them out and the audience response clap-o-meter determines who wins them. Berkowitz litters his narrative with examples.In between competitions, Berkowitz explores other realms in the world of puns, including academe and Bob's Burgers, and tries really hard to learn what makes some people pun, and why puns are funny. As we all come to learn, examining something closely is a lot less fun than actually doing it, so while interesting, the "studious" chapters are only mildly interesting, while the actual pun shows sparkle. Gala and her dad, Jordi, have just moved from home in Cataluna to a town in Scotland, to live with Jordi's boyfriend Ryan. Gala doesn't speak much English, and feels lost, lonely and unable to be her usual funny self. Until she befriends Natalie, a girl with selective mutism.

Gala and her dad, Jordi, have just moved from home in Cataluna to a town in Scotland, to live with Jordi's boyfriend Ryan. Gala doesn't speak much English, and feels lost, lonely and unable to be her usual funny self. Until she befriends Natalie, a girl with selective mutism. The two girls find their own ways to communicate, which includes collecting other people's discarded words. They use the words to write anonymous supportive poems for their classmates, but then someone begins leaving nasty messages using the same method - and the girls are blamed. Author Anna Kemp introduces The Hollow Hills, the sequel to her dark magical tale, Into Goblyn Wood. But for as gently funny as the book is, it would all be for naught if it were not a brisk read. He could have easily overdone it and put every good pun he heard in his text. The edit job to take a lot of those out, I assume, wisely confined the puns to two primary usages: ‘what it feels like to pun’ and the plot-advancing ‘here’s who won this Punderdome.’ (I wonder if you could really do this book if there wasn’t a competitive aspect to it. I’ve never read The Pun Also Rises and I don’t want to.) Berkowitz does a great job of making you like him, and like puns. The participants get to know each other because of their frequent interaction. Many of the punsters work as writers for tv shows, movies, or newspapers or comedians. Some newspapers thrive on utilizing puns in their headlines and stories. At the competitions, a category is announced and the contestants have ninety seconds to come up with as many puns as they can. They then present them to live audiences and are judged by the audience’s response.What we’re all building may be epically pointless and ephemeral—an inside joke that never catches on, a loud parade through a ghost town—but I am nonetheless fully invested in helping it come together.” (86) Because: “Pun competitions that seem like something that could only exist in the frivolous present.” (54) In a transient place like this part of Brooklyn, these ideas capture the zeitgeist of the Punder world. When Joe Berkowitz witnessed his first Punderdome competition, it felt wrong in the best way. Something impossible seemed to be happening. The kinds of jokes we learn to repress through social conditioning were not only being aired out in public—they were being applauded. As it turned out, this monthly show was part of a subculture that’s been around in one form or another since at least the late ‘70s. Its pinnacle is the O. Henry Pun Off World Championship, an annual tournament in Austin, Texas. As someone who is terminally self-conscious, Joe was both awed and jealous of these people who confidently killed with the most maligned form of humor. If you speak both German and Spanish, you may find yourself reaching for a German word instead of a Spanish one, and vice versa. This puzzling experience is so common among polyglots that linguists have a name for it. • The best writers create luscious, long sentences using the same principles that make for a musician’s melodious phrasing or a tightrope walker’s measured steps. • Want to say something is wild and crazy in Norwegian? You can use a slang phrase that translates as “That’s totally Texas!” • Plus happenstance, underwear euphemisms, pooh-pooh, scrappy, fret, gedunk, tartar sauce, antejentacular, the many ways to pronounce the word experiment, a fun word quiz, and lots more.

Some people like puns. Some people hate puns. And some people absolutely LOVE them. AWAY WITH WORDS is about the third group. Set in a world where words appear physically when people speak, Away with Words explores the importance of communication and being there for those we love. Gala and her dad, Jordi, have just moved from home in Cataluña to a town in Scotland, to live with Jordi’s boyfriend Ryan. Gala doesn’t speak much English, and feels lost, lonely and unable to be her usual funny self. Until she befriends Natalie, a girl with selective mutism. The two girls find their own ways to communicate, which includes collecting other people's discarded words. They use the words to write anonymous supportive poems for their classmates, but then someone begins leaving nasty messages using the same method – and the girls are blamed. Gala has finally started adapting to her new life in Scotland and is determined to find the culprit. Can she and Natalie show the school who they really are?Loved both the protagonists, Gala has a wonderful character, a dollop of selfishness totally appropriate to her age and situation, she's kind and brave, with Natalie adding the eccentric flair that brings out her own. Her dad's same-sex relationship is portrayed matter-of-factly and sympathetically, with the family issues she's experiencing resolved within the context of her own school story. I read Our Sister Again by Sophie Cameron last year and really enjoyed it so I was looking forward to reading Away With Words when I heard about it and it didn't disappoint me. This was another strong contemporary book set in Scotland with a twist, this time that in the world they live in you can see other people's words. This book had a paradoxical effect on me. I love puns and use them a lot on social media, and while reading this I found myself thinking of them even more than usual. But it also made me kind of hate them, and the people who can’t stop using them. Taking the words from Julia Donaldson’s poem; 'I opened the book and in I strode', is exactly what happened for me with this fabulous story of family and friendships by Sophie Cameron. Away with Words is a stunning account of the unlikely friendship between two young girls. Gala, who has recently moved to Scotland from Cadaques in Spain, and Natalie, a selective mute who is mostly ignored by the other children in her year but often bullied by some. Berkowitz's introduction to the Punslingers scene is a good example of his easy, generous approach to transportive detail and the gauzy metaphors that make this entire book about had-to-be-there moments possible.