Sam Winston (1)

Oliver Jeffers, a master of thinking outside the box, teams up with Sam Winston for this amazingly creative story about a dictionary who “had ALL the words that had ever been read, which meant she could say All the things that could EVER BE SAID.” But she didn’t tell a story like all the other books, “which is why, one day, this Dictionary decided she would Bring her words to LIFE!”

As the words on Dictionary’s pages appear, so do the characters in the Dictionary’s story, show more beginning with a hungry alligator, who, “smelling something Delicious on the D pages” heads for a donut. The donut then rolls away farther into the pages to save himself from being eaten.

And on the story goes, passing through the alphabet. The characters accumulate and have all sorts of alphabetical adventures, including getting swept up in “Tornado’s TERRIBLE Tantrum.” Eventually Alligator finds Zebra at the end of the book who bolts back to the beginning: “It was chaos!”

Dictionary has to get things back in order, which she does thanks to her friend Alphabet. Alphabet sang the Alphabet Song, and this helped everyone get back to their proper places. Dictionary, having seen the pandemonium story-telling could cause, was now happy to let other books tell their stories instead.

In an interview, Sam Winston explained: “'The idea behind the book is that you’ve got this very rigid structure,’ speaking of a typical dictionary. ‘So where some of the humor and the playfulness and the fun comes from is that this is a book doing something it shouldn’t do.’ Essentially, coming alive.”

The illustrations are a marvel, a captivating combination of photography, painting, ink handwriting, as well as typography for the dictionary definitions.

Evaluation: Kids are bound to increase their vocabularies as they make their way through this delightful action-packed story full of words. As for the definitions that run along the edges of the pages - you would think they weren't part of the story, but you would be vastly underestimating the ingenuity, inventiveness, and effort that went into this book. The definitions provided are unconventional and wonderful - think of The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce with its humorous and satirical definitions but for young people. They are both informative and endearing. Some examples:

People - “a collective word that refers to human beings. Humans were first invented a long time ago, and before humans there were many different versions that came in multiple sizes and shapes. Originally from a few locations, they are now available around the world.”

Home - “The place where you live or where you were born or where you feel you belong. Homes can be found on streets, in trees and where your heart is.”

Dream - “A word for things people see while asleep. Dreams are the brain’s way of showing you that you’re a lot more imaginative than you think. In the day, we fill our heads with sensible things, but dreams prefer to create strange images, such as glow-in-the-dark marmalade and inflatable chicken’s teeth. Some dreams happen when we are awake: Martin Luther King Jr. had a great one. We’ve been studying dreams for ages, and we still don’t really know what they are.”

Miracle “Something that is amazing or magical for which there seems to be no scientific or common-sense explanation. Often associated with finding a parking space or getting homework done.”

Moose - “a large North American deer. You might think that as the plural of mouse is mice, the plural form of moose could be any number of possibilities: mooses, meese or manymooses; it is, in fact, moose.”

It’s so hard to mention just a sampling of these marvelous definitions. Lucky owners of this book will spend delightful hours going through them. show less

A young girl, a child of books, sails across a sea of words in this intensely metafictional picture-book, intent on inviting a young boy to join her on an adventure through the pages of story. Climbing the mountains of make-believe, losing themselves in the forests of fairy tales, sleeping on the clouds of song, the two traverse a world of text, inviting the reader to join them in a realm as limitless as the boundaries of imagination...

A tribute to the power of story, an exploration of the show more complexity of text, and a love-song to bookworms, A Child of Books is a wonderfully creative picture-book, one which pairs a simple over-text with an immensely complex subtext. That subtext, created in the conceptual artwork which uses text itself to depict the landscape through which the girl and boy travel, will draw the reader into an ever-more involved parallel reading experience. So many of the actual quotations used to create the textual artwork - Gulliver's Travels, The Swiss Family Robinson, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for the wave the young girl rides when first encountering the boy; Peter Pan and Wendy while climbing mountains; Kidnapped when confronting the darkness; Rapunzel when climbing down a rope to escape a monster, himself created from Frankenstein quotations - have meaning for the over-text, and add a sense of both visual and story depth to the reading process. I found that I had to read this multiple times, just to get a sense of all that was there, and suspect that I will need to read it many more, to continue to appreciate various details. My suggestion is that first-time readers run through the over-text first, getting a sense of the 'main' story, before going through again and trying to read all of the subtext. My personal subtextual favorite, after many reads, wasn't a quotation at all, but was in the newspaper that the man is reading on the page which speaks of those who have forgotten where story lives. "Important Things," "Serious Stuff" and "Facts" - all contain hilarious little passages! show less

A dictionary decides it wants to have a story like all the other books on the shelf with it. But can such an organized book handle the chaos that comes when words get to choose their own order?

In addition to the zany adventure that runs through the book, each page is framed by original dictionary definitions that enhance the tale and are packed with humorous tidbits and asides. You can speed through the book in minutes and then spend an hour reading all the fine print if you choose.

This 2024 show more picture book was inspired by A Dictionary Story, a text-based work that Sam Winston originally wrote and designed in 2001 and had published in 2006. You can get a glimpse of it here. This new version is distinctly different though, starting with gendering the dictionary as she and taking the tale in new directions with Oliver Jeffers art and Yasmina Cowan's photography. show less

First sentence: Most of the time, all the books knew what they were about. But there was one book who was never quite sure of herself. The dictionary had all the words that had ever been read, which meant she could say all the things that could EVER BE SAID. Yet, when you read her pages from FIRST to LAST, she didn't tell a story like all the other books.

Premise/plot: The Dictionary is envious that all the other books in the library tell a story while she does not. She decides to bring the show more words within to life. And so it begins...

My thoughts: I definitely enjoyed this quirky, fun, celebratory story. The words that are brought to life make for a lively read. The plot is chaotic and silly, yet in a delightful way--at least for me. I enjoyed the resolution. I think this one has potential for readers of multiple ages. I do think young readers could write stories of their own inspired by this one. The possibilities for new stories are endless since the dictionary is vast. It is a creative story book. show less