English is the most spoken language across our world. Billions of people use it but for most, it isn’t their first language.

The history of English is steeped in tales of migration, war and invasion, and is made up of many words taken from other languages.

In this book adapted for children from Bill Bryson’s book Mother Tongue, readers will be astonished how English formed into the language that it is today. Split into two parts:

From First Words to Shakespeare

From Printing Press to Empire

…readers will learn about language itself and how we speak, to how people throughout the ages helped mold and shape it along the way.

This full colour hardback book is chocka with fascinating insights into where and how words and sayings originated, and how different cultures influenced how we communicate.

Did you know that our weekdays are named after Anglo-Saxon Gods?

Did you know that Vikings gave us the pronouns – you, me, they, them and their?

The word Okay came from North America and words Avatar, bangle, cheetah, verandah, shampoo and bungalow came from the Hindi language in India.

There are millions of words in the English language and dictionary compilers can hardly keep up as new words are added every year as English morphs and changes. So many of the words we use every day have centuries of history behind them.

Love words? Want to know where they came from, and how the English language came about? This is the book for you.

Author – Bill Bryson

Adapted for children by Emma Young from Mother Language

Illustrators – Daniel Long, Dawn Cooper, Jesús Sotés & Katie Ponder

Age – 7+

Non-Fiction

(2024, Penguin Books, Dictionary, Words, History, Language, Migration, War, Invasion, Non-Fiction, Spoken word, Historical, Funny, Humour)