Books with author Carol Donohue

For more than 15 centuries, no one could read the strange-looking Egyptian hieroglyphs. And then in 1799 a French soldier in Napoleon's army in Egypt stumbled across the Rosetta Stone, an ancient inscription recorded in Greek, hieroglyphs, and demotic script. Many of the brightest scholars of the time--Egyptologists, historians, and linguists--as well as detectives, professional code breakers, and plain amateurs, all set out to decipher the forgotten words. Carol Donoughue tells us the fascinating story of the hieroglyphs and the race to decipher them, explaining how this curious writing system began with simple drawings of everyday objects. She compares the hieroglyphic system to modern alphabets in an entertaining narrative complemented with numerous photographs and drawings, maps, historical timelines stretching from ancient Egypt to Napoleon, a glossary, and numerous sidebars. The book culminates in an edge-of-your-seat description of how the brilliant French archaeologist Champollion finally succeeded in deciphering the hieroglyphs. A final section displays an alphabet of "hieroglyphs" and offers some fun activities for children based on hieroglyphic writing.

The fascinating story of the written word -- from how it all began to the age of the Internet. The Story of Writing is the compelling story of how writing was invented, how it developed over the centuries, how it has changed people's lives overtime -- and what it means to us now. The book features sections on: Why people write How writing began in different parts of the world How climate and available materials affected the forms of writing Who wrote, and why -- with quotations from ancient sources The spread of literacy The invention of the printing press and its effect on communication The emergence of the Internet, e-mail and text messaging. Valuable sidebars -- "Find Out More" and "You Are There" -- encourage the reader to explore new topics and engage the imagination with real-life descriptions of people and how they wrote. With more than 100 photographs of artifacts and documents from the collection of the British Museum, The Story of Writing is a fascinating history and a remarkable reference.

For more than 15 centuries, no one could read the strange-looking Egyptian hieroglyphs. And then in 1799 a French soldier in Napoleon's army in Egypt stumbled across the Rosetta Stone, an ancient inscription recorded in Greek, hieroglyphs, and demotic script. Many of the brightest scholars of the time--Egyptologists, historians, and linguists--as well as detectives, professional code breakers, and plain amateurs, all set out to decipher the forgotten words. Carol Donoughue tells us the fascinating story of the hieroglyphs and the race to decipher them, explaining how this curious writing system began with simple drawings of everyday objects. She compares the hieroglyphic system to modern alphabets in an entertaining narrative complemented with numerous photographs and drawings, maps, historical timelines stretching from ancient Egypt to Napoleon, a glossary, and numerous sidebars. The book culminates in an edge-of-your-seat description of how the brilliant French archaeologist Champollion finally succeeded in deciphering the hieroglyphs. A final section displays an alphabet of "hieroglyphs" and offers some fun activities for children based on hieroglyphic writing.

For more than 15 centuries, no one could read the strange-looking Egyptian hieroglyphs. And then in 1799 a French soldier in Napoleon's army in Egypt stumbled across the Rosetta Stone, an ancient inscription recorded in Greek, hieroglyphs, and demotic script. Many of the brightest scholars of the time--Egyptologists, historians, and linguists--as well as detectives, professional code breakers, and plain amateurs, all set out to decipher the forgotten words. Carol Donoughue tells us the fascinating story of the hieroglyphs and the race to decipher them, explaining how this curious writing system began with simple drawings of everyday objects. She compares the hieroglyphic system to modern alphabets in an entertaining narrative complemented with numerous photographs and drawings, maps, historical timelines stretching from ancient Egypt to Napoleon, a glossary, and numerous sidebars. The book culminates in an edge-of-your-seat description of how the brilliant French archaeologist Champollion finally succeeded in deciphering the hieroglyphs. A final section displays an alphabet of "hieroglyphs" and offers some fun activities for children based on hieroglyphic writing.

The fascinating story of the written word -- from how it all began to the age of the Internet. The Story of Writing is the compelling story of how writing was invented, how it developed over the centuries, how it has changed people's lives overtime -- and what it means to us now. The book features sections on: Why people write How writing began in different parts of the world How climate and available materials affected the forms of writing Who wrote, and why -- with quotations from ancient sources The spread of literacy The invention of the printing press and its effect on communication The emergence of the Internet, e-mail and text messaging. Valuable sidebars -- "Find Out More" and "You Are There" -- encourage the reader to explore new topics and engage the imagination with real-life descriptions of people and how they wrote. With more than 100 photographs of artifacts and documents from the collection of the British Museum, The Story of Writing is a fascinating history and a remarkable reference.