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The Words that Changed the World

by Hannah Samuel

140 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0358; ISBN 1-55369-545-3; US$18.50, C$21.90, EUR15.50, £11.00

The Words that Changed the World is a wake-up call to all of us. What would the consequences be if MANNERS vanished from our civilization? Could humanity survive...?

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book Ever wondered what our planet would be like with no manners? This book tells the story of three words: Please, Thank you, and Sorry, who are forced to leave Dictionary because they've fallen into disuse. In a last-ditch attempt to persuade people to use them again -- and thereby to save themselves from death -- they enter the real world of mankind as tiny holograms in human form. However, no sooner have they arrived here, than they encounter the Heart Angel, who has a shocking mesage for them. It's then that they discover the threat to man's survival, and their own true purpose in this world. but the question is -- do they have what it takes to achieve it? The book takes these characters through life-threatening adventures as they seek to help human beings in general, and three needy individuals in particular. And just when they think they've succeeded in their tasks, they're brought face to face with the daunting truth -- ...which is, that only now can their REAL mission begin... This book is packed with action, humour, suspense and drama -- and though written in the first place for children, it contains enough serious thinking material for readers of all ages. Do YOU really think the words "please", "thank you" and "sorry" are a waste of time? Then we challenge you to read The Words that Changed the World -- and think again...

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About the Author I was born and raised in London, England, where I studied French and Spanish at university. I then embarked on an unusually varied career - including translation, the Civil Service, social work, and even a short stint as a volunteer in a hospital! However, none of these things really prepared me for what was to come. In the summer of 1982 I left the U.K. for a period of nearly 17 years in Israel. And here was where I was able to observe at first hand what happens to people of all nationalities, when the use of manners becomes simply an annoying waste of time. This attitude was very prevalent amongst the secular children and youth - as perhaps might be expected in our present age. But more shocking by far was that I saw it often in religious families too - including those from Anglo-Saxon countries which had once boasted a strong Christian heritage! It was then that a picture projected itself forcefully in my mind's eye. And in this picture I saw the children of such families growing up with contempt for their parents, and the same mercenary attitude to life as their peers. But don't all the main religions teach respect and considerati on? Then how in the world could this be?? I believe the answer is this: when we drop please, thank you and sorry from our vocabulary, we change the way we see the world. Instead of acknowledging and respecting other people, we see ourselves as the centre of everything, and others as mere instruments for our service. And the fact is, however strictly we educate our children concerning religion and faith, in the end it's how we RELATE to them that has the greatest effect... Dear friends, today's society is in grave danger. In this age of disappearing manners -- in this multitude of conflicting wills -- who will survive? ...Will it be me? Will it be you? One thing seems sure. Without true godly values, IT WON'T BE OUR CHILDREN.

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Sample Excerpts

Chapter 1: The Mission

There was once a great book called Dictionary. Dictionary was home to a vast collection of words, all meant to help human beings read and write. For words, of course, helping people was nothing new... quite the contrary, in fact. Indeed, they'd spent so long in the company of humans, and served them in such deep and personal ways, that it simply beggars belief that when it happened, nobody even noticed...

... when Words themselves mutated into human form.

And it wasn't just an outward change, for within these words were all the dreams and passions of mankind. They became ambitious. They transformed Dictionary into a bustling city from which they would come and go in their daily work. They charged fees for their services, and improved their standard of living. Soon they had twenty-six landscaped neighbourhoods -- each named after a different letter of the alphabet -- sculpted with jewel-like symmetry, like the facets of a diamond. And complete at last, this new, improved Dictionary would have been supremely perfect, were it not for its one blot of shame: those miserable outcasts, the Manners family -- scum that they were!

Of all places they'd chosen the heart of the nobility. They'd had the nerve to pitch their camp right there in the plush suburb of M. And once installed, they'd refused to budge, their raggedy tent propped up by the very banner that bore the letter's emblem. Can you imagine?

Well, the humiliation of it!! Manners, indeed -- who in the world needed manners! If they were so useful, then how come they were starving to death...?!

But for the Manners family -- that is, Please, his wife Thank- You, and their young son Sorry -- it hadn't always been like this. At one time, they'd all been household names. Those were the days when they'd enjoyed world-wide favour and renown. They'd owned a country estate with land, horses and servants, and even held posts of distinction in local government. Then slowly things had changed. Using them less and less had made people gradually forget them. And because the words were no longer hired out for work, they'd had to sell off their possessions to buy food, till finally this was all they had left. The result was, poverty had made them dirty and scruffy-looking, and they had to put up with a lot of rudeness from other words in town.

"You lazy good-for-nothings!" these would cry. "Why don't you get a job like the rest of us? Just look at you -- you're a disgrace to M!"

"We're sorry we look like this. We just can't seem to find any work," young master Manners would reply.

And Mr. Manners would add, "Please be patient with us. I'm sure we'll be working again soon."

Then Mrs. Manners would give them a beaming smile and shake their hands, and say, "Thank you for calling. Do come again."

And then after the words had left, Mr. and Mrs. Manners and their son would stare at each other in despair. "Dear, oh dear," they would murmur sadly. "What will become of us? How on earth are we going to get out of this mess?"

Every day they watched with envy as taxis ferried words in and out of the city. These were the popular words that human beings kept asking to borrow from Dictionary. Words used in this way would earn themselves high wages, and great importance within the town. But this wasn't all. Something far more serious than money and honour was the reason for the family's concern.

For years the council had been saving the taxes it received, so it could make a life-long dream come true. This dream was to build a New Dictionary in cyberspace -- a high-tech, digital city with glassy towers and coloured lights, where trees and birds and animals were ever so nearly, yet not quite real. But words who didn't work and hadn't paid their taxes wouldn't be allowed inside.

They would be left behind in the old, abandoned city to slowly die of starvation...

Then one day Mr. Manners had a brainwave.

"I know!" he cried. "Let's go to Switchboard and talk to the telephone operator. If she could be persuaded to advertise our services, perhaps some of the human beings who ask her for words would hire us."

"What a wonderful idea!" exclaimed his wife. "I'll go and get my coat and hat, and a little gift or two to show our appreciation."

Soon she was ready, and off the family went to catch the bus. Then barely thirty minutes later they arrived in S, a well-to-do neighbourhood on the south side of Dictionary. And there, half hidden between Switchback and Swivel, they finally found Switchboard...

Mr. Manners knocked on the door.

"Name!" snapped an irritable voice from within.

"We're the Manners family, sir," he answered.

"Manners, did you say?"

"Yes, sir."

"Hmmm, Manners... Manners... Uh-huh! Just as I thought, no such name on our files. All right, who's next?"

"Not on your files? But that can't be right! We really are words, sir, and we've lived in M all our lives. Oh, couldn't you please check again?"

"Very well, then, if you insist," grumbled the voice. "I suppose I could look through our List of Old-Fashioned Expressions. What's your business here?"

"If you please, sir, we'd like to speak to your telephone operator," Mr. Manners replied.

"I see. Well, all we have on this list is Please, Sorry and Thank-You, so I'm afraid I can't help you. Now who's next?"

"Yes, yes -- that's us, sir, that's us!" Mr. Manners was almost jumping up and down with excitement.

"That's you?" repeated the bewildered voice. "Well, if that really is you, I suppose I'll have to let you in. But just remember -- old-fashioned words are second class words. Your time inside will be cut in half."

"Oh, thank you, sir, thank you!" cried Mrs. Manners, reaching into her shopping bag.

"Please accept this small token of our gratitude," said Mr. Manners, as his wife left a large box of chocolates by the door.

"We're sorry if we've been a nuisance. Have a nice day!" added young master Manners.

"Next!" barked the voice.

And then the door opened as if by magic, and they all trooped in.

Once inside Switchboard, it took the family a while to get used to the dim light. Then, before they had time to notice the desk in the corner, they were startled by a cry:

"Hello, there! Come in, come in. You're nice and early! The party isn't till one o' clock."

"I beg your pardon, ma'am...?" said Mr. Manners with surprise, as he finally spotted the telephone operator at the desk.

"You can put bottles of drink over there on the table," the woman went on. "The pizzas will be arriving later."

"Pizzas...?" echoed Mr. Manners, more bewildered than ever. Just then there was a ringing sound, and the operator put her headphones back on.

"Hello? Oh, yes... yes... All right, then. I'll pass on the message. Bye!" She looked up at them briefly. "A man wants to hire all the words we have that mean the same as 'Ship'. Why don't you take a seat? I shan't be long." And then next moment she was chatting merrily away to a word called Boat -- obviously a good friend of hers. The Manners family sat down and waited patiently.

"Really? Oh, I say -- well I never!" declared the operator.

"And then what did she do?" she asked. "...Did she really? Well, good for her!"

After twenty-five minutes the phone-call ended. But just as Mr. Manners was opening his mouth to say why the family had come, the operator flapped her hand at him to tell him to be quiet.

"Hello, Craft?" she began. "It's Gabby. ...Oh, I'm fine -- what's new with you? How's your brother these days? ...Really? Oh, I say, how awful. I call that disgusting!"

And then, no sooner had this conversation reached a close, than Gabby went on to the next good friend -- a word by the name of Vessel.

Three quarters of an hour later the phone-calls were over at last, and Gabby remembered her guests.

"It won't be long now. Why not help yourselves to a drink while you're waiting?" she suggested. Then, as she saw their expressions, she was suddenly doubtful. "You are here for the pizza party, aren't you?"

"Well, actually..." Mr. Manners hesitated. After being misunderstood for so long, he felt rather embarrassed to confess the truth. "Well, um -- actually, ma'am, we're here on business," he finally told her.

"Business?" frowned the operator. "Business??? Bad word! Bad word!" Her eyes flashed with fire.

"Oh dear, please forgive me, ma'am! I'm sure I didn't mean to offend," said Mr. Manners hastily. "Er, perhaps I should have said 'work'. You see, we've come looking for work."

"WORK???" thundered Gabby, threatening to explode with rage.

"Oh dear -- bad word! I mean -- I mean..." Mr. Manners threw a desperate glance at his wife.

"What he means is, fun!" Mrs. Manners jumped in brightly. "Yes, fun is what we're here for. We thought we'd ask you if you'd play a game with us!"

"FUN!" Gabby breathed a great sigh of relief. "Well, why didn't you say so? You've come to just the right place."

"Well, of course we have," said Mrs. Manners. "Anyone can see this is the perfect place for fun."

"I should think so!" responded Gabby. "Well, now I've decided to like you, perhaps you should tell me your names."

"We're the Manners family. I'm called Thank-You, my husband is Please, and this is our son Sorry."

"And I'm Gabby. So tell me, what game have you come to play? We've got Scrabble, quizzes, crossword puzzles -- on second thoughts, we'd better not have any more cross words, eh?" And they all laughed.

"Actually, what we had in mind was a new game," Mrs. Manners said.

"Oh?" Gabby was most interested.

"We thought we'd call it 'Gabby'."

"Good name! I like it. How do you play?" asked Gabby.

"It's quite simple, really. Human beings phone up the operator asking for words. What they really need is manners, but unfortunately they keep forgetting to use us. So Gabby reminds them, and then they hire us. Then afterwards they thank Gabby for helping them."

Gabby's face turned bright purple. "You must think I was born yesterday!" she erupted. "Did you imagine you could so easily trick me into doing my job? Now get out of here -- before I have you thrown into a word processor and LIQUIDIZED!!"

"We're going, we're going! Please don't upset yourself!"

"Sorry we bothered you..."

"Thank you for having us..."

"I said get out!"

"We're gone."

Outside, suddenly the day was overcast, and a heaviness came over the family. "Are we really going to die?" Sorry asked, his voice choking up with tears.

His mother was beside herself with emotion. "Oh dear, Switchboard was our only hope! Where in the world shall we go now? We're doomed! We're doomed!" she began to wail.

"Thank-You, my dearest, I believe you've hit on the very last thing we can do to save ourselves," Mr. Manners replied, putting his arms around his wife and son, and hugging them close to his chest. "It's clear there's nothing more to be gained by staying here in Dictionary. If we're to get the work we need to stay alive, there's only one way left for us. The question is -- are we brave enough to take it...?" Sorry looked into his earnest face. "You're scaring me, Dad," he murmured.

"I think we all know that we must -- and so we shall!" said Mr. Manners. "This very hour we'll go home and pack our things. And then we'll leave on the first bus out of Dictionary -- no matter where it's going..." And then, as his wife wept uncontrollably... "Today we'll abandon forever all we hold dear, and venture into the world -- the real world of human beings," continued Mr. Manners. "And there in the real world we'll meet and face our future: either everlasting life... or death and oblivion forever." He drew them closer to his heart. "Courage, dear ones, courage!" he said. "Surely you must see we can hesitate no longer. It's time to do the brave thing.

"It's time for us to leave!"

* * *

Twilight was falling as the rusty old minibus rattled and bumped its way towards its final destination -- the gloomy town of Ne'er-Do-Well, just inside the human world. Mr. and Mrs. Manners and their son looked anxiously out of the window. What kind of place was this? they wondered, as they noted the dingy streets and tumbledown houses on either side. Could this be where they'd find life and hope?

At last the minibus came to a halt, and clutching their few small belongings, the family slithered down onto the roadside. And if there'd been anyone else around on that damp and drizzly evening, they would indeed have seen a strange sight. For it was three little persons who stood there on the turf -- three perfectly formed little persons, half as tall as the wheel of a car. Mr. Manners was an ordinary sort of man in working clothes, with laughing eyes and a ready smile. His wife was plump and cuddly, and dressed in a coat and hat. And their son was a ten-year-old boy wearing shorts and a football shirt, kicking a pebble about in the grass. These three little persons were as human as ever could be -- and yet they weren't really human at all. For their bodies weren't made of flesh and blood like ours, but rather, of colour and light. And as passionately as they wished to be people, nothing could be more impossible. They were simply holograms... words in human form. Even the very life inside them was lent to them by folk. And so they lived from day to day, fearful of the winds of death that could blow them out like a candle forever...

"Well, here we are, then," said Mrs. Manners, as she smoothed her ruffled coat and adjusted her hat. "Have we all made sure we've left nothing behind on the bus?"

"Yes, dear, I checked before we got out," her husband replied.

"Where are we going now, Dad?" asked Sorry. "It's nearly dark, and we're getting wet."

Mr. Manners peered around him, vainly searching for lights in the nearby buildings. "I think we should head for the town centre," he said. "Perhaps there we'll find somewhere to stay for the night."

And so off they set in what appeared to be the right direction, expecting to arrive at any moment. But after a mile and a half, they were beginning to get discouraged.

"This looks like a ghost town! There's nothing here," protested the weary Sorry.

"Could we have mistaken the way...?" wondered Mrs. Manners.

Her husband scratched his head. "We ought to be there by now. Where could we have gone wrong?" he mused.

All of a sudden a great brightness pierced the shadows behind them. They turned, and gasped with fear. For there before their eyes, more brilliant than the whitest light, stood a pillar of silver fire. And the fire took the form of a man towering high above them.

"Don't be afraid," said the man, as they fell trembling to the ground. "I'm the bringer of life, not death."

"Who are you?" murmured Sorry.

"I'm the Heart Angel. I've been sent to help you save the people," he replied.

"Save the people...?" They stared in bewilderment.

"Yes, I know you've come into this world to save your own lives. But I tell you the truth -- if you die, the people of the earth will die with you."

"We don't understand," said the words, more confused than ever.

And then, looking down with compassion, the angel began to explain.

"You see, my friends, you're no ordinary words. When God created you, he gave you special power to soften the hearts of human beings. People who use you are kind and think of others; people who don't are selfish and hard-hearted. The selfish ones have forgotten what it is to love. If they don't change soon, their hard hearts will turn to stone, and then they'll die."

The Manners family struggled to grasp what they were hearing. "Do you mean to say we can help these poor humans?" they asked.

The Heart Angel fixed them with an earnest stare. "I can't be clearer than this -- no other words can do what only you were created to do!" he declared. "The truth is simple: If you help these people to change, they'll live. If you don't, then they'll surely perish..."

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Catalogue Information

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