Great American humorist James Thurber's beloved, madcap, and eerily
timely fairy tale about an island society robbed of the wonders of the
letter O--in a stunning Deluxe Edition featuring flaps, deckle-edged
paper, and the original, full-color illustrations
Littlejack has a map that indicates the existence of a treasure on a far
and lonely island, and Black has a ship to get there. So the two bad men
team up and sail off on Black's vessel, the Aeiu. The name, Black
explains, is all the vowels except for O--which he hates since his
mother got wedged in a porthole: They couldn't pull her in, so they had
to push her out. Black and Littlejack arrive at the port and demand the
treasure. No one knows anything about it, so they have their henchmen
ransack the place--to no avail. But Black has a better idea: He will
take over the island and purge it of O. ("I'll issue an edict!")
The harsh limits of a life sans O (where shoe is she and woe is we) and
how finally with a little luck and lots of pluck the islanders shake off
their overbearing interlopers and discover the true treasure for
themselves (Oh yes--and get back their O's)--these are only some of the
surprises that await readers of James Thurber's timelessly zany fairy
tale about two louts who try to lock up the language--and lose. It is a
tour de force of wordplay that will delight fans of Lewis Carroll, Dr.
Seuss, Edward Lear, and Roald Dahl, and a timely reminder of how people
can band together in the name of freedom to overthrow a tyrant.
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