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A Beginning, a Muddle, and an End

A Beginning a Muddle and an End

Har­court, 2008

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Don’t miss the beginning!
if you liked this book, try:

The Right Way to Write Writing

What’s this book about?

Avon the snail and Edward the ant are back for anoth­er funny—and philosophical—adventure. This time, Avon has decid­ed he wants to be a writer, only to dis­cov­er that writ­ing is way more dif­fi­cult than he ever imag­ined. He final­ly gets the word Some­thing writ­ten down, but there’s a prob­lem: What to write next? Luck­i­ly, his friend Edward is there to advise.

Story Behind the Story

Sit­ting on my book­shelves is Advice to Writ­ers: A com­pendi­um of quotes, anec­dotes, and writer­ly wis­dom from…literary lights. (Com­piled by Jon Winokur) I don’t look at it often, though it is fun to read. It is full of use­ful reminders, such as E.B. White’s: “The best writ­ing is rewrit­ing.” Or even, Flaubert’s “Prose is like hair; it shines with comb­ing.” Fitzger­ald: “Cut out all those excla­ma­tion marks. An excla­ma­tion mark is like laugh­ing at your own joke.”

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Reviews

 … it’s easy to imag­ine the right child sit­ting at the din­ner table or in the back­seat of the car, or traips­ing through the gro­cery store, exhaust­ing the patience of assem­bled, cap­tive fam­i­ly with a word-for-word account of Avon and Edward’s hilar­i­ous exploits.” (Book­list)

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Don’t miss the sequel!
if you liked this book, try: