Away With Words

Product Information

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 Fast Company reporter Joe Berkowitz investigates the bizarre and hilarious world of pun competitions from the Punderdome 3000 in Brooklyn to the World competition in Austin.

A book about family, friendship, and what it means to be you. One of those books you read in one day and think about forever.” Wibke Brueggemann, author of Love is for Losers If someone urges you to spill the tea, they probably don’t want you tipping over a hot beverage. Originally, the tea here was the letter T, as in “truth.” To spill the T means to “pass along truthful information.” Plus, we’re serving up some delicious Italian idioms involving food. The Italian phrase that literally translates “eat the soup or jump out the window” means “take it or leave it,” and a phrase that translates as “we don’t fry with water around here” means “we don’t do things halfway.” Also: a takeoff word quiz, why carbonated beverages go by various names, including soda, coke, and pop; fill your boots, bangorrhea, cotton to, howdy; milkshake, frappe, velvet, frost, and cabinet; push-ups, press-ups and lagartijas; the Spanish origin of the word alligator, don’t break my plate or saw off my bench, FOMO after death, and much more. It has been fantastic to read this novel. As someone who is a communication specialist and spends a lot of time helping children and young people to adapt and learn how they can better interact, this is a book that might go some way to helping the wider world understand the challenges those with selective mutism face and how we can better support them.” Eimear Monahan, Paediatric Speech and Language TherapistMy 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. How wonderful is that? Ohhh I want to exist in a world where words are visible! It was enchanting. The story moves the pair into a situation where their kind hobby shines a spotlight on them both, forcing them to have to openly speak out in a way neither would normally have confidence doing. Eleven year old Gala’s dad Jordi has relocated them both from Cadaqués, Spain to Fortrose, Scotland, so that he can live with his boyfriend Ryan. Gala isn’t happy about the move as she speaks only Catalan. She feels quite lost in her new school and unable to express her feelings with words. Things begin to change the day she meets Natalie, a girl with selective mutism. With Natalie’s inability to speak in public and Gala’s inability to speak in English, the two form a strong bond based on their own special ways of communication. They even use words to write supportive poems for their classmates. But someone then begins writing poems with nasty messages. Will Gala and Natalie be able to speak up for themselves? Using the conventions of sportswriting, Mr. Berkowitz manages to make the actual pun competitions he attends, and in which he participates, genuinely exciting. He moves his narrative at a brisk pace, making what would potentially induce torpor into a something that reads like, well, like the best descriptive writing about closely fought sporting events, which I suppose is what the pun competitions are. 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.

Brooklyn, apparently. And Austin, TX, but we'll get to that in a minute. First Berkowitz drops you in the middle of Punderdome, the once-monthly pun competition that launched the board game of the same name. You show up and sign up for a competition slot, registering with a punny name (Berkowitz chose Punter S. Thompson). 5 competitors per round. Everybody gets a whiteboard and a marker. A topic is announced and you have 90 seconds to write down as many puns on the topic you can think of. Then, one by one, you tell them to the audience. It's an improviser's dream. Which makes sense, because most of the people who do well at Punderdome are a) improv folks, and b) stand-up comedians. Gala and her dad, Jordi, have just moved from home in Cataluna to a town in Scotland, to live with Jordi's boyfriend Ryan. Gala doesn't speak much English, and feels lost, lonely and unable to be her usual funny self. Until she befriends Natalie, a girl with selective mutism. Set in a world where words appear physically when people speak, AWAY WITH WORDS explores the importance of communication and being there for those we love. 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. Our primary mission is to provide an unlimited number of sign language and CDI interpreters to the greater Pacific Northwest Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf/Blind community, with personal attention and professional service that meets your highest expectations.As for the story, after moving from Spain to Scotland so her papa and his boyfriend can be together, Gala feels ill at ease, out of sorts, and definitely not at home. While she’s befriended by the two Eilidhs in her class, Gala still feels on the outside. Struggling to understand English, and to be heard, she longs to return to Spain.

Sophie Cameron's descriptive imagery, along with some very clever use of different fonts and text layout, enable the reader to understand the emotional strife of someone with English as a foreign language or who struggles for other reasons communicating their needs. Gala and Natalie find a way to overcome the 'language barrier' and become friends, however, they soon come to realise the power of the spoken word; the good and the harm it can do. 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.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. We also offer services to primary schools, secondary schools and school clusters. Our vocation is to provide intervention to meet the diverse needs of children with speech, language and communication needs, whilst recognising and delivering the benefits required by schools in relation to costs, flexibility and ultimately improved educational achievement. Find out more >>

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! I love puns. I love puns with the passion of a thousand firey suns. They are my favorite type of joke, and if you tell me a good pun, we'll be friends for life. So, to see this book, and discover that such a thing as a Pun Competition actually exists, I couldn't wait to get my hands on and read this book. Tell me of these award winning punners!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. Crucially, most of the puns aren’t even funny: tortured, convoluted, overly-reliant on obscure pop culture minutiae, and some barely even qualify as puns. Most of the competitions rely, as the competitors readily admit, on quantity rather than quality, and by half way through the climactic day-long battle even the audience is bored. And blow-by-blow descriptions of these contests takes up most of the book.