Away with Words!:
Wise and Witty Poems for Language Lovers
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers • 2022 • 64 pages • ISBN: 978-0-3161-6765-9
In this poetry collection, Mary Ann Hoberman celebrates the joy of wordplay with poems about the alphabet, assonance, alliteration, grammar and punctuation, similes, rhythm and rhyme, and so much more!
“Words are remarkable
Here is a book
Where you’ll not only listen
You also will look
Where you’ll not only look
But you also will think
About words and their meanings
And how in the blink
Of an eye or a letter
Their meanings can change
Words are remarkable
Language is strange!”
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Reviews
Publishers Weekly
“Digitally finished pen and pencil spot art with a hand-markered vibe features illustrated alphabets, arrayed creatures, and people of varying skin tones; the standout is a double-page, starry night homage to the word vast ('A tiny word/ That encompasses/ The universe').”
The Wall Street Journal
“Fellow grammar nerds, rejoice! With an illustrated collection of humorous poems, Mary Ann Hoberman and Perry Hoberman make it easier for us to induct unsuspecting children into our persnickety cadre. Ms. Hoberman’s verses in “Away With Words!” take on puns, homonyms, punctuation, similes and all manner of syntactical nicety, while Mr. Hoberman’s playful, childlike pictures keep the mood light.”
— Meghan Cox Gurdon
— Meghan Cox Gurdon