Behind Her Back She’s...

spoiler alert but I was re-reading The Priory of the Orange Tree by @sshannonauthor and just about died laughing when I realised my girl’s natural-born talent is just depression gjfjldjkfjgfds

"Gravity is matter's respond to loneliness"

Over the years I’ve been keeping an eye on the much-neglected genre of linguistics books for young people. This post is an aggregate of links to all of those reviews.

I’ll update this post whenever I have a new book to review. If you know of any books about language for kids and teens that aren’t on this list, let me know!

A Little Book of Language, David Crystal

From one of the most prolific authors on the topic of the English language and linguistics. Incredibly sensible and also charming and engaging. This book has 40 short chapters of 3-4 pages, with many featuring a separate breakout with a related story or example. 

The Word Spy, Ursula Dubosarsky

We get brief dalliances into hieroglyphs and cuneiform as well as morse code and printing presses. There are half a dozen chapters on ways you can  play with English, and each is broken down into mini-sections that are  rarely more than a page or two long.

The Return of the Word Spy, Ursula Dubosarsky

The Word Spy loads her books full of fascinating facts about language and how it works. They’re my default recommendation for budding linguists.

Frindle, Andrew Clements

If your language loving kid isn’t into factoid-based books then this is not only a lovely little tale but it manages to slip in some basic ideas about how words work.

Wicked Words, Terry Deary

It’s silly, rude and occasionally has a few too many exclamation marks, if I had a time machine I would send it back in time to myself when I was in late primary school. 

Grammar: Write Here, Write Now (Basher Basics)

Tthe overall effect is somewhat like hallucinating while reading a reference grammar.

Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn

Don’t even get this one for your kids, get it for yourself - and if you do just have a word-ish teenager around to pass it on to they’ll love it too.

The Dictionary of Difficult Words, Jane Solomon & Louise Lockhart

Okay but they’re so FRENCH in this interview oh my goddddd

Adèle just casually speaking french to Noémie “bah vas-y Noémie”  asking her to answer and touching her leg saying “c’mon, do it” 

Noémie says “womens” and “mens” like 54678 times asdfghjklkjgh

Noémie asking Adèle how to say a word english, chapter 28 

Adèle pronouncing bathtub “bath tube” and being so sure of herself that the interviewer doesn’t even dare to correct her lmao

Noémie saying “HEIN ??” and “baaaaah it’s important” and Adèle saying “oh euuuuh” in the biggest french way possible i died 

Ann Walker, half asleep: I could kick your ass right now.

Hilltop Scene™️

HILLTOP SCENE™️

HILLTOP SCENE™️

HILLTOP SCENE™️

HILLTOP SCENE™️

HILLTOP SCENE™️

HILLTOP SCENE™️

HILLTOP SCENE™️

H I L L T O P S C E N E™️

H I L L T O P S C E N E™️

“are you alright” with no phoney “i’m always alright” answer from anne 

the unsure “did you?” when anne said she missed her cause apparently ann’s gained self confidence but there’s still work to do there OH MY SWEET CHILD

the kiss on the hand and wrist and uh-oh-wtf-is-that-scar moment that i’d hoped for but DIDNT THINK ID ACTUALLY GET??? hashtag blessed

Anne is WAY too proud to tell her that she completely fucked up at a royal gathering in Denmark, so new headcanon that they’ll definitely invent a game where the goal is to outdo each other’s social inaptness when they travel abroad

the eyebrow thing??? you know what i mean THE eyebrow thing!! that anne did when ann said she’d say yes to another proposal and anne was trying so hard not to lose it right then and there and be all detached like “oh really would you?” honey quit trying to be cool your face is fucking it up

the softfuckingness of that “don’t hurt me” BITCH YOU FIRST YOU BOTH STOP HURTING ME WITH THIS VULNERABLE BS AAAAAAH MY GOD THIS LOVE

anne’s open eyes!!!!!!! her “i’ve dreamt of this moment so much that i can’t fully believe i AM kissing you right now so i have to look for a sec before i really get lost into it” moment YESSS I FEEL YA I CAN’T BELIEVE IT EITHER SWEETIE

the kiss itself cause hellooooo

Anon, all of you listeners who reach out make my days a better and brighter place. Knowing that our stories are uniting a community of people who wanna watch stuff like this:

Squeal endlessly about scenes like this:

FALL OUT OF YOUR CHAIRS WITH ME OVER THIS ANNE LISTER:

And ultimately, share all of our experiences and gay pain together...

THAT is what makes this world a brighter place.

All of us.