Zanzibar and his Zany Crew of Sentence Constructors

Book excerpt: From the Intergalactic Space Station, Ali peered through the orbit meter set on Alexandria, Egypt around 2,000 years ago and began to sweat. Seeing the orange flames soaring higher and higher, he imagined the sound of crackling as the precious old parchments vanished. At hand was the very destruction of recorded knowledge! ?King Alexander the Great did not have this Library built to lose it now!?, he explained to the city fathers. He went on to suggest, ?What we know, once in the now burned books, must be written again creating books both new and old. We must find Zanzibar and his Zany Crew. My glimpse through the orbit meter/time machine reveals a future wherein the diffusion of the English language is as widespread as a fresh carpet of winter snow.' ?Hurray!?, they shouted, ?if many know English and we write so, the sentences, both new and old, may comprehensively grow!? This is a story recounted in a fanciful way using the true incident of the burning of the famous Library of Alexandria, Egypt, including its contents, more than two thousand years ago as a context. Joyfully in 2008, on the Egyptian coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the inauguration of the new Library of Alexandria was celebrated. The requirement of the Library to make available many texts, both new and old, is used in this book as a context for sharing the mechanics of English sentence construction. Join us as Zanzibar, appointed by the city leaders, finds the crew needed to construct and reconstruct the books, both new and old, of the ancient Library of Alexandria.