Write Around the World The Story of How and Why We Learned to Write

In this lively history of writing, six goofy birds -- a penguin, two toucans, an owl, and two chickens -- team up to tour the world of writing: how it developed, where alphabets came from, and the origins of international languages such as Latin, Esperanto, and Morse Code, and much more. They begin their time-traveling journey in 4,000 B.C.E. with the Sumerians, who invented pictograms out of the necessity to keep trading records. One of the toucans flies on a kite tail to China to learn about characters, the penguin walks like an Egyptian in full headdress across the desert sands to uncover hieroglyphs, and then there's a mad rush of characters who pass the idea of an alphabet around Europe and the Near East. Delightfully illustrated in full color, Write Around the World includes light-hearted and informative sections on the world's alphabets, languages, handwriting, calligraphy, typefaces and punctuation, icons, and secret codes as well as a glossary of important words.French, Vivian is the author of 'Write Around the World The Story of How and Why We Learned to Write', published 2002 under ISBN 9780195219241 and ISBN 0195219244.