James Maguire

This book started out strong, and its first chapter as well as a couple of chapters in the middle (particularly the one regarding the development of the first printed dictionaries) were spectacularly well written. Unfortunately, I found the rest of the work repetitive and pointless.

At the beginning of the book, Maguire does an exceptional job in setting up the emotions of the National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC. Even when he devolves into the minutiae of some of the past participants and champions, Maguire keeps the narrative somewhat tight and flowing in the same general direction. The mid-section widens its scope and talks about the general concepts of a spelling bee, and his chapter about dictionaries is written with humor and wit previously repressed in the early chapters. The levity of these chapters even overshadows his inclusion of spelling words which had been discussed in earlier chapters and reiterations of Bee factoids and histories already discussed. But after that, the book pretty much fell apart. So much of the information describing the 2005 Bee was identical to the 2004 Bee discussed at the beginning of the book, I question whether entire sections were cut and paste into the later chapters. His choice of highlighting five of the new competitors lacked the finesse of the biographies of the previous champions, and he struggled to make the individual’s story interesting. By the time he describes the final rounds leading to the champion, he has utilized virtually every adjective of suspense and trepidation known to man – several times – that I found myself rooting for the kids to MISS the words, just so the chapter could end.

The story of the bee is fascinating, and the level of difficulty these kids face is unbelievable, and had Maguire limited his scope to this tighter orbit, the book would have maintained its readability throughout. As it is, the book serves as a poorly designed compendium of difficult words and a great vanity printing for the egos of those included within.… (altro)

I'll save everyone some time on this one. To summarize:

"(insert name), a (insert age)-year-old from (insert town), did well in the competition despite having (insert adversity). The child of (insert compelling familial history), he/she did well, spelling (insert obscure word) with 'lkjyy' instead of 'elcgii'. He/she was sad, cried, and then recovered with a determination to spell better next time. It was on TV. They've been having this contest a long time."

Repeat several times.

There could have been a thread to tie the events and characters together (see: School of Dreams). Instead, it is a disjointed jumble of history, biography, and narrative that thwarts any attempt by the reader to reconcile into an enjoyable pace. A truly awful book.… (altro)