The Dictionary Story by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston

"It looks like a real dictionary," says Jeffers. 

"But if you pay close attention, you'll see that all of the definitions have been rewritten."

Is a dictionary a story? Does the dictionary want to tell a story? Is that why the title here has been changed from A Dictionary to The Dictionary Story? And who are those characters peeping out at the side? I spy a walrus, an alligator, a ghost, a queen, the moon, a donut, and a Viking. Now flip to the back cover and an alligator is staring at a zebra but the dictionary definitions have been reversed.

Zebra: A wild animal that looks like a small horse with black or brown and white stripes on its body. Likes hiding out at the back of dictionaries. Dislikes sudden surprises (see alligator).

Alligator: A large reptile that looks like a crocodile. Alligators have thick skin with many hard bumps. They live in rivers, lakes and swamps and swim with their babies in their mouths. They also have a special fondness for baked sugary snacks.

Peel back the dust jacket. The blue cloth cover has an embossed alligator on the front cover and an embossed zebra on the back cover. I adore these extra features. So much care has gone into the design of this book and wait until you see the end papers!

At first glance the end papers look like pages from a dictionary but then you realise the words are not in alphabetical order. The bold words actually form a sentence:

The first words were born inside our heads where they wriggled around a long time and slowly crawled out of our mouths and into the ears of other people. Like words writing was a bit hit in no time at all there were secret notes ride jokes and graffiti all over the place. This explosion of words meant we needed to find a new home for all these tiny marks. People soon realised it would be useful to have a book explain this type of thing that book was called a dictionary.

Dictionary: A book full of words and their meanings. The words are set out in alphabetical order and generally stay put, although, when things get a bit dull, they sometimes have a little shuffle and a new story pops out.

Story: A description of events either real or imagined. Some stories are told with words, others use pictures and lots of them get copied into books. Books carry stories around until someone like you finds them a home in their imagination.

There are two layers to The Dictionary Story. The blurb below describes the plot which is presented in a hand-written font and involves all those characters from the cover. Meanwhile each page also has dictionary extracts but these need close reading because they contain way more than usual dry definitions. I can certainly see why this book took seven years to create.

And, by the way, the story itself is fun. While a lot of thought and work and planning went into making it, at its heart The Dictionary Story is just a good old fashioned 

chase story with a lot of chaos and a heartwarming ending 
(can Dictionary put herself back together? Maybe with a little help from some friends!) NPR interview

Here is another example:

Underpants: A piece of clothing that goes from the top of your legs to your waits. Some people decide to wear them on top of heads but that very rarely works out well.

When I saw The Dictionary Story in a London bookshop, I was very keen to buy and read it. Luckily, I had a $10 voucher for one of our Sydney Independant bookstores (Abbeys). Many school libraries here in Australia will now have this book because it was sent out by Australian Standing Orders (Scholastic Australia) as a title in their international pack. You could compare the ASO teachers notes with these from the publisher Walker Books. You can hear Sam and Oliver talking about their book here. 

Bookseller blurb:  Dictionary wishes she could tell a story just like the other books. So one day she decides to bring her words to life. How exciting it is to finally have an adventure on her very own pages! But what will she do when everything gets out of control—all in a jumble—and her characters collide, causing the most enormous tantrum to explode. This isn’t what she wanted at all! How on earth will she find sense in all this chaos? Her friend Alphabet knows exactly what to do and sings a song that brings calm and order to Dictionary’s pages once again.

Unimaginable care has been taken with the very real handmade books that visibly bookend the story (the dictionary is noticeably worse for wear by the end). Meanwhile, pages are filled to the brim with tiny details for eyes both young and old to find and enjoy ... With hijinks and hilarity hidden on every page, this is a sweet, strange, wordy tale bound to delight all who pick it up. Kirkus Star review

Sam Winston’s and Oliver Jeffers’ pictures and storytelling are sublime. This pair’s imagination and presentation are outstanding so that readers need to spend time lingering through the pages before beginning the book all over again. ...  Then again, the quality of this production is gorgeous. It means that The Dictionary Story is a superb choice for reading together, exclaiming and discovering, but alone too. What’s more, it’s a fantastic gift book. Altogether we love and recommend this book wholeheartedly. Bookwagon

Olivetti by Allie Millington

"Memories are like heartbeats. They keep things alive. They make us who we are."

"Typewriters are not allowed to tell the words that have been told to use. That is our typewriter code - to never let what has been typed into us back out. Communication with humans is strictly forbidden."

Olivetti lives with the Brindle family. I love the names of the children - Ezra, Adalyn, Ernest, Arlo. Dad is Felix and mum is Beatrice. It was Beatrice who found Olivetti many years ago. She uses him to write her most personal thoughts along with stories and poems. The family do own a computer but as Olivetti explains:

"I was not familiar with what files were, but I was certain I had more storage. In fact, I had unlimited storage. I held an endless amount of memories inside me. Decades worth of words. Not to mention I was much more low maintenance. I did not need to be constantly charged or connected to some higher power called the internet."

"Remembering is the very language we speak. I am a patchwork of pasts, stitched together with stories. A tapestry of tales."

These tiny extracts show you the unique and witty voice of Olivetti - yes he can 'speak'! 

Now look back at the list of children. Ernest is our story hero. He is a loner. His main companion is the Oxford dictionary. He has memorized hundreds of word definitions, and these are scattered throughout the book. Ernest is also silent. There is a hint early on in the story that something truly dreadful has happened and that this is why he has retreated into silence. I cannot explain this further - you need to read the whole book to make this discovery for yourself.

"My family didn't understand why I spent all my time reading (the dictionary). But there was a lot they didn't understand about me, so that wasn't exactly breaking news. Compared to them, I was different, defined as: not the same as another or each other; unlike in nature, form or quality."

"I wasn't big on meeting new people. Once you meet people, you might get close to them. And once you get close to them, you might lose them for good. You're less likely to get hurt, the farther you stay away."

Beatrice has disappeared and she has taken Olivetti to a pawn shop. Why? Where has she gone? 

The chapters in this book alternate between the voices of Olivetti and Ernest. By accident Ernest finds Olivetti. Mum has sold him for the strange amount of $126. Ernest will now need help from the pawn shop owner's granddaughter to solve this urgent mystery and find mum. Quinn is character you will love. She is a problem solver, she is patient, she is persistent and most of all she really likes Ernest even though he tries so hard to ignore her. 

After reading this book you will want to revisit the classic story - The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis. 

If you enjoy a good mystery especially one where two kids work together to gather clues not realising that through this process, they are forming a wonderful friendship, then this is a book you will really enjoy. Hopefully modern kids do know a little bit about typewriters but if they don't you (the adult reader) can easily answer any questions or find photos an actual Olivetti. I read this book in one sitting - the plot just races along. I highly recommend Olivetti for readers aged 10+. And I love the cover too! When I was in London last week I saw a couple of guys with typewriters sitting near Tate Modern offering to compose and type a poem for anyone passing by for a small fee. What an enchanting idea. 

Millington captures the essence of why typewriters are such extraordinary creations, and why everyone should have one: Olivetti takes no side, shakes no finger. (A typewriter simply reflects what you put into it.) And he cares. So when Ernest tracks down Olivetti, inexplicably pawned by Beatrice for $126 (remember that amount), and begins tearfully typing on him, desperate to communicate with her, Olivetti does the unthinkable: He types back. “Do not be alarmed. … I am Olivetti. … I can help you.” Tom Hanks New York Times (try to read this review it contains lots of plot details. I do wonder how this famous actor came to read and review Olivetti but I happy to have found his piece.)

The author winningly blends magic and realism, poignancy and mystery, as her characters close in on what’s happened to Beatrice, bonding through adversity along the way. Her lovely notion of a typewriter as a repository of secrets and dreams is finely rendered, and she imbues Olivetti’s heavy steel case and clackity keys with compassion and determination. This heartfelt tale movingly explores the beauty and importance of communication—whatever form it may come in—while encouraging readers to welcome the singular joy of finding kindred spirits in unexpected places. Bookpage

One Day - a first dictionary by Ann James

 One day I woke up. 
I got dressed.

I ate my breakfast.

I played outside.

Accompanying each of these simple sentences we follow a child through their day - ending with I read a story and I went to bed. On one side of the page we see the family and the activity and on the other are two frames with two letters and four images that can be found in the scene. For example - I ate my breakfast we see an egg in an egg cup, a fruit bowl from their table and two drawings that can be found on the 'fridge. This would be a perfect book to share with a very young child and it is you could revisit often. There is a very special warmth to each of the family scenes and mum and dad have simply perfect expressions which really interpret each event. IF you can find this book from 1989 look at the page where the goat is eating mum's hat and mum's eyes when she is trying to dress the little child early in the morning. The realistic domestic scenes in One Day reminded me of Sunshine by Jan Ormerod. 

I was thrilled to visit Dromkeen last week and even better I was able to purchase an original illustration by Ann James.  I already own a limited edition print of an illustration from It's a Miroocool. Ann James, Mark Wilson, Leigh Hoobs and Gabrielle Wang have works included in an exhibition at Dromkeen.

Along with art to purchase at this exhibition they also had lots of books to buy and so that is where I picked up One Day - a first dictionary which was published, as I said, in 1989 and so I assume is long out of print.

The piece I purchased comes from this book - it is an image intended for the back cover.

Read a review

I do hope the State Library of Victoria have a plan to showcase the original Dromkeen collection which was gifted to the library. It contains 7500 original art works collected by Joyce and Court Oldmeadow. 

In 1973, Dromkeen was purchased by Joyce and Court Oldmeadow, who used the homestead as a private residence and storage centre for their educational bookshop. Before long their love and interest in children’s literature led to the establishment of the Dromkeen Collection, and the house became a home for Australian children’s literature. The Oldmeadows dedicated their lives to preserving the original artwork and manuscripts of Australian children’s literature for public display. Following Court’s death in 1977, Scholastic Australia took over responsibility for maintaining the Collection. Joyce Oldmeadow continued to develop Dromkeen and in 1982, she inaugurated the Dromkeen Medal, awarded annually to an Australian citizen whose work has significantly contributed to the appreciation and development of children's literature. To guarantee a permanent home for the Collection, Scholastic Australia purchased the homestead in 1985. In 2012, the Dromkeen Foundation and Scholastic Australia gifted the entire Dromkeen Collection, along with the Dromkeen archive, to State Library Victoria.

View from the 32nd Floor by Emma Cameron

Blurb: Something special has been gifted to you. Join your neighbours, Saturday, 6.00 pm, on the roof. Living on the thirty-second floor of an apartment block, William has a clear view of the building opposite. He sees his neighbours eating ice-cream, watering potted palms, painting pictures ... or as shadows behind closed curtains. Shadows worry William. With his new friend Rebecca, and helped by lots of cake, a dictionary of names, tai chi, and banana-shaped sticky notes, he plans to tempt his lonely neighbours back into the world. Can they succeed? Always always.

Today I had to wait around 3 hours at an appointment so I picked up View from the 32nd Floor before I left home this morning. Today is the THIRD time I have read this book and I still adore it - but I so desperately wish Walker Books Australia had given this book a better cover - apologies to Liz Anelli. I need to beg, shout, cajole this publisher to reprint this little book - it is such a GEM. 

I have talked about View from the 32nd Floor twice previously in 2013 and 2019 so please take a minute or two to read my comments and then IF you have any way of influencing the publisher please beg, plead, implore them to republish this book NOW. Perhaps we should all tell the author Emma Cameron too.

Teachers - you could use this book for so many things but most off all this book would be a splendid read aloud to a Grade 4 class. In my previous posts I talked about the music William's dad share each day and all the wonderful names William adopts to match his daily hopes and purpose.  Here are some character descriptions:

Mrs Stravros - "She had hair streaked with more silver threads than black, and her pale face was as wrinkled as crepe paper."

Paula - "Paula was as skinny as Jess but only came up to her armpits. Her boots were nothing like Jess's either. They were covered in sequins of every colour and a tiny bell jiggled at the end of each pointy toe when she walked."

Jess - "her skinny legs covered in stretchy black tights and her fine frame wrapped in a pale blue terry towelling bathrobe. Thick brown hair flopped over her eyes when she juggled a key in the lock."

The Keeper of Wild Words by Brooke Smith illustrated by Madeline Kloepper

Words disappear if we don't share them when we talk.

If we don't write them in our stories.

If we don't read them in our books.

If we don't use words, they can be forgotten.

And if they're forgotten ... they disappear.

Take a look at these images:

If you read a picture book about a otter then, especially if you are an Australian child, you will discover a new animal. If someone shares the brilliant Margaret Mahy book The Pumpkin Man and the crafty creeper with a child they might talk about ivy as an example of a plant that creeps. Perhaps you have willow pattern china - of course you would want to share the famous story of the willow pattern.  Otter, Willow and Ivy are just three of the words that the Oxford Junior Dictionary decided to delete a few years ago.  Here are some others:

acorn, adder, ash, beech, bluebell, buttercup, catkin, conker, cowslip, cygnet, dandelion, fern, hazel, heather, heron, ivy, kingfisher, lark, mistletoe, nectar, newt, otter, and willow. Source Listen and Learn

These deletions, Brooke Smith explains, made her feel  "disillusioned and ultimately very sad." Especially when compared with the replacement words: chatroom, voicemail, conflict, database and vandalism.

When we read a book, especially as a child, we often find new words. If you find an unfamiliar word I'm not sure I would think to grab a dictionary - perhaps a child will ask an adult or a friend, or they will 'skip' the word. Do writers use dictionaries to find inspiring words? Probably not. BUT somehow it seems wrong to remove words from a dictionary. Oxford said these words were removed because they were not in current use. These were mainly words that give names to things in nature. They argue that urban children don't use these words. Certainly an Australian child is unlikely to encounter an otter, a lark or a conker in real life but then again an Australian child is lucky because he or she can read books in English and discover these animals and plants in stories. I have fond memories of a childhood book that contained a conker. I had no idea about this but from the text (and perhaps an illustration) I could make some sense that it was a tree nut and that it was very tough and good to use for a 'smashing' game. As you can see the controversy around deleting words from a junior dictionary raises so many questions and viewpoints.  Here is what Oxford University Press said about their decision.

In this story young Brooke visits her grandmother Mimi. Mimi is a writer. She invites Brooke to come outside and help with her task as Keeper - The Keeper of Wild Words. The pair explore the countryside with a plan to find 19 words which Mimi has on her list such as doe, drake, poppy, porcupine, willow and wren.

On each page they make a new discovery. They taste blackberries, smell mint, blow a dandelion, and watch a flock of starlings high in the sky. 

By the end of the day they have found every word on the list but Mimi has one more surprise.  Remember there were 19 words on the list.

"You know my favourite wild word is not on the list ... It's standing right in front of me."  It is a BROOK.  "You were named after this tiny stream that your mother always cherished."

At the back of the book there is an envelope which you can use to keep your own 'wild words". My copy of this book came from a wonderful school library but I am quite tempted to put a few words into the envelope for the next young reader to discover.

Brooke Smith says: "Nature has always been a crucial part of my life, and my daughter Mimi’s, too. We were fortunate enough to raise her on our property in Bend, Oregon with many of these wild words naturally present. I wanted to write a book that would allow children everywhere to experience the beauty of nature and feel what it’s like to wander and explore." Nerdy Book Club

The expedition is described in vivid language, organized as free verse in single sentences or short paragraphs. Key words are printed in color in a larger display type and capital letters. Sensory details allow the protagonist to hear, see, smell, taste, and hold the wild. Kirkus

By coincidence here The Keeper of Wild Words another book which celebrates Grandmothers and it is one where we see them as young and vibrant. I talked about this in My Forever Dress earlier today.

The Keeper of Wild Words comes from the US with a Canadian illustrator Madeline Kloepper. In the UK another book inspired by the removal of words from the dictionary is the award winning The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane illustrated by Jackie Morris. The Lost Words won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2019 and the Beautiful Book Award in 2017.

I would pair The Keeper of Wild words with these books:

Daniel finds a poem

I am the seed that grew the tree

What a Wonderful Word by Nicola Edwards and Luisa Uribe

In our Sydney Morning Herald newspaper columnist David Astle often talks about new words, invented words and words from other languages. This week he talked about a word for a plank that slides over your takeaway coffee across a counter needed in this time of social distancing. People sent in all sort of funny and insightful words such as cafeuplt; telescoffe; and jenga dispenser.

Sometimes in English we need a lot of words to explain a simple concept while other languages might have developed one, often quite powerful word, for the same thing.

Here is a sentence I created using words from What a Wonderful Word and below is a translation:

I was so happy to gokötta today. Of course it is winter here so I knew it was a gluggavedur day. I was thinking about the lady I met yesterday because my tartle was awkward. She has such pretty hair but in this time of COVID-19 I guess no one in her family can cafuné. Anyway it was so good to see my friends yesterday. After all the weeks of lock down I felt retrouvailles.

gokötta - to wake up early in the morning so you can go outside and hear the birds singing SWEDISH
gluggavedur - weather that looks beautiful while you're inside but is much too cold when you step outside ICELANDIC
tartle - to hesitate because you have forgotten someone's name SCOTS
cafuné - the act of running one's fingers through someones hair - PORTUGUESE
retrouvailles - the happiness of being reunited with someone after a long time apart. FRENCH

It's nice to know that other people have given a name to a feeling you've had: whether you've tartled at a party (hesitated when you forget a person's name) or had abbiocco because your eyes were bigger than your stomach (drowsiness after eating a big meal).  Book Trust

I am very sad to report that this book - What a Wonderful Word - appears to be out of print. It was only published in 2018. I am shaking my head that a book as wonderful as this one has had such a short life in print and therefore in bookshops - thank goodness for great libraries! In this book you will marvel at the words from around the world and you are sure to enjoy all the extra 'facts' provided on each page. I was thrilled to see one of my favourite words included - gobbledygook! And to learn about the power of simply holding hands.

Here are some other books I treasure on this topic. I especially love the book Words Borrowed from other languages. It is a large format or big book which you can share with a whole class. I often made use of it in my former school library.