2024 NATIONAL MEDAL
for Museum and Library Service Finalist

Non-Fiction

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

If you're not one to think spelling is fun, wait until you see some of the spelling in this book!  In an attempt to make English easier to read and write, Ben Frankin (you know who that is) and Noah Webster (the guy who eventually started the dictionary -- yup, that Webster!) teamed up to make our inconvenient alphabet a little more convenient.  Did it work?  Not really.  If it did, maybe you'd regularly see something like the following excerpt from the book:

"Spelling Reeform!

Bild the karacter of this great nayshun!

Amerikan Inglish!

Kid Scientists: True Tales of Childhood from Science Superstars

Did you know that as a young teen, Sally Ride was a nationally ranked amateur tennis player?  Want to know if Stephen Hawking binge-watched TV as a child?  Would you believe that Manya Sklodowska (that's Marie Curie, by the way) once hung all of a relative's furniture from the ceiling as a practical joke?  The latest installment of this popular series focuses on scientists, including Neil deGrasse Tyson, Temple Grandin, Nikola Tesla, and many more!