An Inconvenient Alphabet: Ben Franklin & Noah Webster's Spelling Revolution by Beth Anderson (review)

A statesman and a lexicographer, removed by centuries from a contemporary picture-book audience, surprisingly emerge as empathetic heroes in this account of Benjamin Franklin and Noah Webster's efforts to impose sanity and order on the unruly mashup of spellings and pronunciations that plagued a newborn United States. Modern listeners, struggling with their own experiences as nascent readers, will easily discern that Franklin and Webster lost their battle, since we still contend with write/right, bow/bough, and similar inanities. In this humorous romp, Anderson makes it clear that other systems were devised, floated, and ultimately rejected by the very population that grumbled against orthographic disorder. Franklin's proposed ejection of extraneous letters and their substitution with six new symbols representing sounds made plenty of sense, as did Webster's idea for strict phonetic spelling with the expulsion of silent letters and consistent rules for short and long vowel sounds. Then as now, though, it's easier to complain than to change, so Franklin went down in defeat and Webster settled for creating a world-renowned dictionary. Anderson's text is a perfect blend of well-trimmed information and the recasting of historical Big Names into lovable warriors launching a charm assault for a losing cause. Baddeley's rollicking mixed-media scenes effectively convey the debate in which the public, fresh from its political revolution, decides it's not in the mood for linguistic one. Author and illustrator notes, quotation sources, and a bibliography are included. EB