Alphamaniacs: Builders of 26 Wonders of the Word

Are you a word person? A curiosity seeker? An explorer? Take a look at these twenty-six extraordinary individuals for whom love of language is an extreme sport.

Step right up and read the genuine stories of writers so intoxicated by the shapes and sound of language that they collected, dissected, and constructed verbal wonders of the most extraordinary kind. Jean-Dominique Bauby wrote his memoirs by blinking his left eyelid, unable to move the rest of his body. Frederic Cassidy was obsessed with the language of place, and after posing hundreds of questions to folks all over the United States, amassed (among other things) 176 words for dust bunnies. Georges Perec wrote a novel without using the letter e (so well that at least one reviewer didn't notice its absence), then followed with a novella in which e was the only vowel. A love letter to all those who love words, language, writing, writers, and stories, Alphamaniacs is a stunningly illustrated collection of mini-biographies about the most daring and peculiar of writers and their audacious, courageous, temerarious way with words.

Publisher: Candlewick Studio
Published: 04/14/2020
Pages: 160
Weight: 1.5lbs
Size: 9.10h x 7.20w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780763690663
Age: Young Adult


Award: Golden Kite - Honor Book


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/27/2020
Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2020 pg. 107
Booklist 03/01/2020 pg. 36
School Library Journal 04/01/2020 pg. 157
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 04/01/2020 - Book Of Special Distinction

About the Author
Paul Fleischman is the author of many books for children, including the Newbery Medal-winning Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices. With Candlewick Press, he is the author of Weslandia, The Dunderheads, The Matchbox Diary, and Eyes Wide Open. He lives in Monterey, California.

Melissa Sweet has illustrated nearly one hundred books for children, including the Caldecott Honor books The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus and A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams. With Candlewick, she is the illustrator of Baabwaa and Wooliam and Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems. Melissa Sweet lives in Rockport, Maine.