#blogbookaday: The Great Dictionary Caper
Summary: “When all of the words escape from the dictionary, it’s up to Noah Webster to restore alphabetical order in this supremely wacky picture book that celebrates language.
Words have secret lives. On a quiet afternoon the words escape the dictionary (much to the consternation of Mr. Noah Webster) and flock to Hollywood for a huge annual event—Lexi-Con. Liberated from the pages, words get together with friends and relations in groups including an onomatopoeia marching band, the palindrome family reunion, and hide-and-seek antonyms. It’s all great fun until the words disagree and begin to fall apart. Can Noah Webster step in to restore order before the dictionary is disorganized forever?” (Taken from Goodreads)
Review: This is such a fun book and one I would give to elementary school age kids who are familiar with some of the concepts of language such as palindromes, antonyms, anagrams and more. With lots of great wordplay and illustrations that match perfectly for the text, this is a fun book of language for kids and adults alike. Plus, it would make a great starting point for working on a specific concept or having kids illustrate their own examples of different words. One unfortunate note, the world rhyming is spelled incorrectly (which can happen), but in a book all about words from a dictionary, it’s especially regrettable.
Personal Reaction: I like books that play and interact with words like this one, I would agree with other reviewers in saying the storyline is a little sparse, but it’s a fun way to look at the English language and I think it would make a great resource for elementary school classrooms and for kids who love to read and write.
Title: The Great Dictionary Caper
Author: Judy Sierra
Illustrator: Eric Comstock
Publisher: Paula Wiseman Books
Publication Date: January 23, 2018
This is a new idea I’m trying on my blog this year that was inspired by @donalynbooks and @heisereads – to provide a brief review of a picture book every day of 2018. You’ll get a brief summary of the story, a review of the content, illustrations and theme, my personal reaction to the book and all the pertinent publication information! Enjoy!
