• List of colour plates, List of figures, Preface, 1 Literacy, identity and futures, 2 ‘My Gawd, I made it like Australia’:making meaning in many media, 3 Making sense of the world:‘The seagulls are reading the newspaper’, 4 Drawing letters and writing dinosaurs:children’s early engagement with print, 5 ‘You made it like a crocodile’:a theory of children’s meaning-making, 7 Teaching literacy, learning literacy, 8 Futures, Sources and contexts, Bibliography, Index

'A call for a fundamental change in education. Provocatively, he defines school as a place where teachers insist the world can only be known through the abstractions of written language. His book shows the fascinating ways in which children express and exchange meaning on their progress to literacy.' - New Scientist'Before Writing has radical implications both for linguistic theory and for educational practice. It calls into question the accepted focus on written language as a privileged system of representation.' - Journal of Sociolinguistics

• List of colour plates, List of figures, Preface, 1 Literacy, identity and futures, 2 ‘My Gawd, I made it like Australia’:making meaning in many media, 3 Making sense of the world:‘The seagulls are reading the newspaper’, 4 Drawing letters and writing dinosaurs:children’s early engagement with print, 5 ‘You made it like a crocodile’:a theory of children’s meaning-making, 7 Teaching literacy, learning literacy, 8 Futures, Sources and contexts, Bibliography, Index

'A call for a fundamental change in education. Provocatively, he defines school as a place where teachers insist the world can only be known through the abstractions of written language. His book shows the fascinating ways in which children express and exchange meaning on their progress to literacy.' - New Scientist'Before Writing has radical implications both for linguistic theory and for educational practice. It calls into question the accepted focus on written language as a privileged system of representation.' - Journal of Sociolinguistics

• List of colour plates, List of figures, Preface, 1 Literacy, identity and futures, 2 ‘My Gawd, I made it like Australia’:making meaning in many media, 3 Making sense of the world:‘The seagulls are reading the newspaper’, 4 Drawing letters and writing dinosaurs:children’s early engagement with print, 5 ‘You made it like a crocodile’:a theory of children’s meaning-making, 7 Teaching literacy, learning literacy, 8 Futures, Sources and contexts, Bibliography, Index

'A call for a fundamental change in education. Provocatively, he defines school as a place where teachers insist the world can only be known through the abstractions of written language. His book shows the fascinating ways in which children express and exchange meaning on their progress to literacy.' - New Scientist'Before Writing has radical implications both for linguistic theory and for educational practice. It calls into question the accepted focus on written language as a privileged system of representation.' - Journal of Sociolinguistics