Would suggest you read the physical copy to see the proper effect of the words and their appearance. The Kindle version didn’t create the same impact. Utterly unique and movingly memorable, a wonderful story about what happens when we take control of our own narrative, and find ways to communicate across the gaps in language. Clever, brilliantly written, and thought-provoking, it will stay with you." – Sinéad O’Hart, author of The Time Tider In this story of hope and endurance, we follow a scientist and her team during their search for the elusive 'Giant Arctic Jellyfish'.

Recommended to middle-graders looking for an unusual story about the power of words and the value of friendship, especially in a new location.The problem with having a first person perspective for this book was that we read all of Gala's thoughts and apprehensions in English, a language she wasn't fluent in and yet voicing her thoughts so well in. This created a jarring contradiction between what was being said and the language it was being said in. But it runs too long, I think is the thing. There’s a lot here, but it oddly doesn’t have a lot in its lot (one could say that was its lot in life, but I would never). It’s basically a historical travelogue that’s trying to make a meal out of the hors d’ouevres and a really excellent magazine article stretched to the length of a book. Regarding the dances everyone does to ham it up for the clap-o-meter: “There’s only so much galloping across the stage or pretend-lassoing the crowd you can do before you just feel dead inside.” (48) Well put. 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? Gala has moved from Spain where she easily moved between Catalan and Spanish to northern Scotland where she must navigate through a new life with her Dad and his boyfriend in a small community. Once exuberant she becomes silent; once gregarious she becomes lonely. She befriends Natalie, a classmate whose anxiety has isolated her. Natalie’s selective mutism and Gala’s struggle to communicate in English create a bond for the two girls. What’s beautiful about this world, however, is that words and conversations leave traces. Natalie and Gala start collecting their own and other people’s words to communicate, to reflect and to encourage.

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. 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.A heart-warming and bittersweet examination of personhood, familial bonds and healing from loss” Lauren James, author of The Quiet at the End of the World Some people like puns. Some people hate puns. And some people absolutely LOVE them. AWAY WITH WORDS is about the third group. My thanks to Little Tiger Group and NetGalley for the DRC of “Away With Words”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Our Sister, Again is a vibrant exploration of love, personhood and everything in between. This is a book driven by a family’s affection, for their daughter and their sister. Quietly thought-provoking, it’ll have you questioning what it means to be human and how far someone will go for love.” Reads Rainbow blog

I have modestly nice things to say about this story, which is about the awful(ly fun) and groan-worthy competitive pun scene in the USA that largely seems to hinge on quantity over quality, unless somebody’s swinging for the fences or decides to pivot. Yet the two form a bond when Gala notices Natalie collecting other people's dropped words, which she discovers the girl makes into creative pieces. Learning of other students going through hard times, they decide to form their recycled language into poems to lift spirits and bring hope and kindness to others, when they struggle to express these things themselves. My introduction to the book came from briefly being a member of this posse. When I showed up to my first Punderdome earlier this year, I had no idea how intense a scene I was stepping into. I knew the show had existed for years, but I’d never gotten anyone to go with me and generally put off trying it. The first time I stepped into Littlefield, I signed up to participate and got paired with an established punster who had won four times. (Thank god; I would have fared horribly at coming up with two minutes worth of puns on my own, without even understanding the format.) We made it to the second round, but what I saw from the established punners that night blew me away. 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

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A truly remarkable story. Sad and life-affirming all at the same time. These characters are going to stay with me for a long time.” Lee Newbery, author of The Last Firefox Welcome to Away With Words. We are an independent speech and language therapy service offering assessment and therapy to children and young people throughout Yorkshire. If you wanted, you could read the book as a slice-of-life dispatch from arty, gentrifying Brooklyn: a place so suffused with post-intellectualism intellectuals that an organic community arose around punning, the way small towns spin up Elks lodges. You could read it as the story of how cosmopolitans are reclaiming nerd culture from actual, off-putting nerds. (The O. Henry organizers in this book are insufferable, pun-dantic chauvinists.) Our certified interpreters are based in Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, and Vancouver, but we have recently expanded our operations to remote areas throughout Washington, as well as communities in North Idaho and later Oregon. If you’re looking for quality, personalized service, you’ve come to the right place!

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.The concept of being able to see other people's words was really interesting as well as collecting and preserving those words. I also really like how Gala and Natalie used other people's words both struggling with English and speaking themselves respectively. Through the words Gala manages to develop her English and become more confident while Natalie uses them to express herself. Natalie struggles with selective mutism through the book which I felt was written well and in a way that was easy to understand and relate to. Okay, after receiving a polite message from the author, I've decided to come clarify my original review, which may have been a bit too hard on the snark, and light on the review. But Away With Words never takes itself seriously, and all that exegesis is pretty much unnecessary. The meat of the reading experience is to be viscerally immersed in the world of Punderdome, because it's fun. The first round of Punslingers is endless. In what humans call time, it takes less than two hours. Considering we’d already sat through hours of puns beforehand, though, it feels more like the interminable unfolding in which yarn is knitted into fabric and sewn into clothes and those clothes go out of style. It's such a fascinating world she's created, I really enjoyed thinking about it. I imagine it's harder for politicians to lie, for one thing! The detail that words come out different colours or fonts when the speaker is feeling different ways is amazing and the fact that despite this, people still have misunderstandings and make mistakes is wonderfully human.