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The Wonderful O by James Thurber
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The Wonderful O (original 1957; edition 1990)

by James Thurber, Marc Simont (Illustrator)

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8041727,119 (4.01)65
Relates what happened when an evil sea captain banished the letter O from the island Ooroo.
Member:llewisxu
Title:The Wonderful O
Authors:James Thurber
Other authors:Marc Simont (Illustrator)
Info:Donald I. Fine, Inc. (1990), Edition: 1st Updated, Hardcover, 72 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:fiction, verse novel

Work Information

The Wonderful O by James Thurber (1957)

  1. 00
    Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn (SylviaC)
    SylviaC: Both stories use a light touch to look at language and censorship.
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» See also 65 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 17 (next | show all)
This much-loved classic is a fun book for younger readers. A tyrant named Black decrees that all occurrences of the letter "o" will be removed form the island of Ooroo. This causes widespread destruction and chas, in the midst of which Black and his accmplices are als n the hunt for treasure. In despair, sme lcals reslve t fight back to preserve things like lve, hnur and freedm.

Thurber has much fun with describing the chaos ensuing from the banishment of animals wiht "o" in their names, and the amendment of words like lose and loose so that they both become lse, for example. His prose is subtle and rhythmic, and some parts scan quite well as poetry, almost.
( )
  gjky | Apr 9, 2023 |
No Morgan, this isn't the Story of O (stop calling it that).

What a wonderfully outstanding book. James Thurber is a wordsmith and this book shows his talent. For a children's book, this has some great word play. The plot of this book is basically a pirate comes to a town and bans all things that have the letter "O" in them. He doesn't like the letter. Thurber is clever enough to make things go out of hand. This book is also an obvious statement on censorship. Remove one letter form the alphabet and the world goes mad. Lesson: Stop censoring words.

I like how Penguin is making these children's books for there Deluxe line. I've never heard of any of these before. I'm more familiar with Thurber's adult humor and cartoons he had done for the New Yorker. I think he was better at those, but this story is worth checking out. I hope they make Walter Mitty into a Deluxe or his other adult stories.

I will say skip the intro for this book and 13 Clocks. I normally don't care about introductions, but Neil Gaiman's and Marc Simont's intros I didn't like at all. They are more about themselves than the book or Thurber. Neither of them are good choices either because neither of them are remotely close to what Thurber wrote. Why not pick someone who write humor books?

Anyway, with that said, this book might make you laugh if you're into word play humor. Yes this book is for children, but it's more like his stories he for for adults too. I'm not a huge fan of the art work in this book, but still fun for all, unless you don't think "O" is wonderful. ( )
  Ghost_Boy | Aug 25, 2022 |
A fun enjoyable fast read. I like the word play and allusions to other literary works. Simply a masterpiece. ( )
  kimberlyrivera1473 | Sep 23, 2020 |
I'm just asking....

Was this Carl Sagan's favourite book when he was like eight? ( )
  bringbackbooks | Jun 16, 2020 |
I enjoyed this childrens book. I like how James Thurber plays with words. I think other authors have borrowed from his technique.

Reread it for #1001 summerroadtrip, a tour through Ohio. Reading it this time, I kept having thoughts of how we are dropping letters a lot with our chatting via apps and on-line technology. Is the alphabet changing.

Thurber is a man who loved words. I did not know that he went blind. He hired Marc Simont to illustrate his book. I have a copy of the book with the illustrations by Marc Simont. Marc Simont is the winner of the Caldecott Medal.

The back cover tells us that two men visit the island of ooroo on the boat Aeiu in search of jewels. These men start taking away the freedoms of the inhabitants of Ooroo one thing at a time until there is nothing left but cnfusin and chas. The islanders decide that there are 4 words with O that must not be lost, do you know what the 4 words are? ( )
  Kristelh | Jul 16, 2017 |
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» Add other authors (1 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
James Thurberprimary authorall editionscalculated
Simont, MarcIllustratorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Riggs, RansomIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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For Ted Gardiner, and his Julias and Patricias, with love and other good O words.
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Somewhere a ponderous tower clock slowly dropped a dozen strokes into the gloom.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Relates what happened when an evil sea captain banished the letter O from the island Ooroo.

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