A world without books, without letters. This is a story of people who both love and fear books and the power of words. Warriors of words battle with those stuck in the mire of ignorance. A world where the sight of the alphabet is terrifying. Horrible concept for serial readers.A heroine is required to brave this inane unreality. Mosca seems not quite up to the task...just a child and locked in a mill as the story opens. So of course she turns her world upside down, with the help of her goose companion. She manages to elude and exasperate some unforgettably scruffy and dangerously devious characters. She is very often much smarter than the reader. Enchanting.This is a book for grown up and growing up children who love words. There is page after page of words playing games, words woven into puzzles, words conjuring images of mayhem and delightful magic. Like the river that Mosca uses to escape her captors, the words wind and wander into curlicue patterns never seen or imagined before. There are moments when sentences can stop your breath, illuminate your brain, curl your toes.The story is challenging and touching and witty....but it is demanding. It demands your imagination and your dictionary occasionally. It is hilarious and horrifying. It is the kind of book you give an unsuspecting child of any age who wants to read something scary, exasperating, and vivid. It is a multi faceted convex mirror of real life today.....without the goose.