In this lively history of writing, six goofy birds -- a penguin, two toucans, an owl, and two chickens -- team up to tour the world of writing: how it developed, where alphabets came from, and the origins of international languages such as Latin, Esperanto, and Morse Code, and much more. They begin their time-traveling journey in 4,000 B.C.E. with the Sumerians, who invented pictograms out of the necessity to keep trading records. One of the toucans flies on a kite tail to China to learn about characters, the penguin walks like an Egyptian in full headdress across the desert sands to uncover hieroglyphs, and then there's a mad rush of characters who pass the idea of an alphabet around Europe and the Near East. Delightfully illustrated in full color, Write Around the World includes light-hearted and informative sections on the world's alphabets, languages, handwriting, calligraphy, typefaces and punctuation, icons, and secret codes as well as a glossary of important words.