With playful black-and-white illustrations, riddles to solve, and codes to break, The Word Snoop is definitive proof that words can spark the imagination and are anything but dull. This is a book for every aspiring writer, and every true reader.
July 6, 2009
Using word puzzles, codes, puns and a wealth of information, Australian author Dubosarsky (The Red Shoe
) explores the enigma that is the English language. The eponymous Word Snoop leads an entertaining adventure that researches the peoples and influences that have shaped English over the past 1,500 years (“I sometimes think English is like a big old wall that people have been scribbling on for centuries,” quips the snoop). Beginning with an overview of early writing (cuneiform, hieroglyphics) and alphabets before moving on to the ins and outs of English, the snoop's reader-directed narration offers playful and engaging explanations of punctuation and silent letters (“They're a bit like stray cats that wander into the house”) among other elements of language, including nicknames, onomatopoeia, clichés, Internet slang and pig latin. The book is a useful tool for teachers, but should also delight language enthusiasts of all ages. Riddle's cartoons provide humorous flourishes as well as drive home certain points. The clever approach grants insight into the complexity and beauty of communication and the inherent power of language. Ages 10–up.
September 1, 2009
Gr 5-9-This "wild and witty tour of the English language" is a fun read for kids who love words. The author writes in the voice of a detective who is working to uncover all the mysteries of the language. Beginning with a history of the alphabet, chapters discuss punctuation, word puzzlers (anagrams, lipograms, etc.), palindromes, code languages (Pig Latin, rebuses, rhyming slang), puns and tongue twisters, euphemisms and clichés, nicknames and eponyms, and texting. Each section ends with a puzzle or a code that, when solved, spells out a secret message. The author's tone is playful throughout. She offers many examples to clarify some esoteric points of grammar. The pages are illustrated with amusing line drawings and silhouettes. The silly manner makes what can be a dry subject lighthearted and interesting. Readers will also increase their knowledge about how English evolved to what it is today, learn some word games, and discover that LOL and texting have very old roots."Geri Diorio, The Ridgefield Library, CT"
Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2010
In the guise of the eponymous Word Snoop, Dubosarsky delivers a cursory, chatty tour of the evolution of the English language from ancient to modern times. She covers expected topics (spelling, punctuation) in addition to a potpourri of lesser-known tidbits; her enthusiasm for the intricacies and oddities of the English language is infectious. Pen-and-ink drawings help keep the lessons light. Glos.
(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
September 1, 2009
The Australian author (The Red Shoe, rev. 5/07; The Terrible Plop; rev. page 538), in the guise of the eponymous Word Snoop, delivers a cursory, chatty tour of the evolution of the English language from ancient times (cuneiforms and hieroglyphs) to modern (texting). Along the way she covers expected topics (the evolution of spelling and punctuation) and conventional wordplay (palindromes, onomatopoeia, spoonerisms), but it is the potpourri of lesser-known tidbits that surprise and delight. In 1969, one Frenchman wrote a three-hundred-page novel without the letter e, while another wrote a five-hundred-word palindrome. While the origin of Pig Latin and knock-knock jokes is uncertain, the former has been around at least since the 1920s, and the latter probably originated in the 1950s among schoolchildren in South Africa. The Word Snoop's enthusiasm for the intricacies and oddities of the English language is so infectious that readers will be hard-pressed to resist her invitations to join the fun by experimenting for themselves. There is a glossary, but no index; pen-and-ink drawings help keep the lessons light.
(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)