An Inconvenient Alphabet: Ben Franklin & Noah Webster's Spelling Revolution - Hardcover

by Beth Anderson (Author), Elizabeth Baddeley (Illustrator)

"Delightful, relatable, and eye-catchingly illustrated." --School Library Journal
"Deelytful and iloominaating for noo and seesuned reeders alyk." --Kirkus Reviews
"Thought-provoking and entertaining." --School Library Connection
"Engaging...A comprehensible, lively read." --Publishers Weekly

Do you ever wish English was eez-ee-yer to spell? Ben Franklin and Noah Webster did Debut author Beth Anderson and the New York Times bestselling illustrator of I Dissent, Elizabeth Baddeley, tell the story of two patriots and their attempt to revolutionize the English alphabet.

Once upon a revolutionary time, two great American patriots tried to make life easier. They knew how hard it was to spell words in English. They knew that sounds didn't match letters. They knew that the problem was an inconvenient English alphabet.

In 1786, Ben Franklin, at age eighty, and Noah Webster, twenty-eight, teamed up. Their goal? Make English easier to read and write. But even for great thinkers, what seems easy can turn out to be hard.

Children today will be delighted to learn that when they "sound out" words, they are doing eg-zakt-lee what Ben and Noah wanted.

Author Biography

Beth Anderson, a former English as a Second Language teacher, thinks her students would have appreciated Ben and Noah's big idea. An Inconvenient Alphabet is her first book. Born and raised in Illinois, she now lives in Colorado. You can visit her at BethAndersonWriter.com.

Elizabeth Baddeley is the illustrator of the critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsberg Makes Her Mark, written by Debbie Levy. She also illustrated A Woman in the House (and Senate): How Women Came to the United States Congress, Broke Down Barriers, and Changed the Country; The Good Fight: The Feuds of the Founding Fathers (and How They Shaped the Nation); and An Inconvenient Alphabet. Elizabeth graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City with a degree in illustration and currently lives in Kansas City, Missouri. Learn more at EBaddeley.com.