August 2023, Hodder Children's Books, 68 pages, Paperback, Review copy
Book summary from Hachette Children's
Have you ever wondered what an Indri is, eaten a Clapshot, grown a
Cloudberry or come across a Colugo? Do you always find yourself looking
up CURIOUS WORDS?
From Nefarious and Knots to Yuzus and Yews, this brilliant tour through
over 1,000 wonderful words and their meanings, packed with awesome
illustrations is the perfect book for kids who always want to know what
EVERYTHING means!
Colourful pages burst with curious words on subjects from space and
dinosaurs to colours and actions, while language spreads explain how
different types of words can do what you want them to do.
Nayu's thoughts
Words to any language are strange and require time to learn, something I can still appreciate as I do speak more than one language and while I don't formally learn French and Japanese any more, I still pick up new words as I read manga and watch anime. It is impossible to learn every word that exists, and children have to learn a lot of words throughout school. Anything that makes learning memorable and interesting is an absolute must. Sarah's choice of words along with Fiona's illustrations are a perfect combo to portray over 1000 words stated in this book. I liked how immersive each double page is, no two pages are alike. Words are displayed at different angles; food words are shown through a food market, weather words are shown in a picture of the world including weather system. Some are brightly coloured, others in pastels.
All are presented in unique ways that hopefully makes assimilating the words easier to comprehend. I may be in my early fourth decade but I didn't know all the words in the book. I'd never heard of a "crwth", a welsh musical instrument played with a bow, and as a bird lover I'd never heard of an ovenbird, a bird who builds dome shaped nests (I guess like domed ovens). No matter our life experience we all have something to learn, and ok some of us may never need to know that a group of rhinos are called "a stubborness of rhinoceroses" (very apt name given their size and strength), but they might prove useful for general knowledge quiz games and are amusing to think about. The book itself is about A4 sized, which is plenty big enough to read alone or with a friend. I'm going to be giving this to my helper as I know her 4 children will enjoy reading this (two are far too young for now but it can wait until they are older).
See more of Fiona's work on her website.
Suggested read
If you love new words I believe there are some in A Kiwi Year and A Canadian Year by Tania McCarney and Tina Snerling (Children's, Non-fiction, 10E/10E)
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