About this item
"The fantasy book of the year."-Eoin Colfer, bestselling author of Artemis FowlA 2018 Notable Children's Books Selection!You are The Wordsmith now. Are you ready for the challenge? The city of Ark is the last safe place on Earth. To make sure humans are able to survive, everyone in Ark must speak List, a language of only 500 words. Everyone that is, except Letta. As apprentice to the Wordsmith, Letta can read all the words that have ever existed. Forbidden words like freedom, music, and even pineapple tell her about a world she's never known. One day her master disappears and the leaders of Ark tell Letta she is the new Wordsmith and must shorten List to fewer and fewer words. Then Letta meets a teenage boy who somehow knows all the words that have been banned. Letta's faced with a dangerous choice: sit idly by and watch language slowly slip away or follow a stranger on a path to freedom...or banishment.
About the Author
Patricia Forde lives in Galway, in the west of Ireland, with her husband Padraic and two teenage children. She has previously published PictureBooks and Early Readers for children in Irish and in English. She has written two plays and several television drama series for children andteenagers. In an earlier life, she was a primary school teacher and the artistic director of the Galway International Arts Festival. The List ( The Wordsmith in the UK and Ireland) is her first novel.
