The Dictionary Story
by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston
Candlewick Press, 2024.
Review written October 18, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review
This is probably the first picture book I’m recommending for the sake of the parents, not so much the kids.
Sure, the story for the kids is fun – we’ve got a dictionary that’s jealous of all the other books that have stories inside. So she decides to bring some words to life, and an alligator gets loose and starts going after a donut, which doesn’t want to be eaten, so they start racing through the pages and causing chaos. It’s got Oliver Jeffers’ zany illustrations and silly straight-faced sense of humor.
The illustrations show the characters frolicking through a standard dictionary’s pages – or so I thought until I paused to read the fine print. And that’s when the true brilliance of the book hit me.
I started with the “How to Use This Dictionary” page pictured toward the beginning, was enjoying its quirkiness and noticed that the editors are “Woliver Effers & Jam Spinston.” Then I had to read every single visible entry. (The endpapers are filled with definitions, and there’s also a column of them running along the bottom of most pages.) This meant that it took me much longer to read this book than an ordinary picture book, but I also gained lots of laughter.
I’ll list some of the quirkier definitions:
ajar – A word to describe something as slightly open. Not to be confused with a jar (which works best when mostly closed).
author – The writer of a book, poem or news. They move tiny black marks around (see letters) to discover what interesting shapes they can make in people’s heads (see stories). Sometimes this results in writers being paid. (See good times, donuts and coffee.)
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.
hippopotamus – A very large mammal with short legs that lives near water in Africa. Hippopotamuses are vegetarian. Their idea of a good time is not wearing clothes, floating in water and wallowing in mud. (See spa.)
minnow – A very small freshwater fish that lives in rivers, streams and sometimes lakes. They feed on insects, among other things, and often dream about a time when they will rule all known galaxies.
tall – Above the average height. Which can get quite complicated because a tall turkey is tiny in comparison to a tiny tiger, and a tall tiger is tiny compared to Thailand.
zero – Zero is a word that means nothing. Nothing is a word that means nothing. Even though zero is a different word for nothing, both mean nothing. This definition has just told you nothing.
And here are some excerpts that are especially delightful and completely won my heart:
words – Even though they are small, they are great at making the inside of your head big.
library – Libraries are a bit like forests; they are enchanted places to get lost in.
story – Books carry stories around until someone like you finds them a home in their imagination.
May you find a home for this story in your imagination.
oliverjeffers.com
samwinston.com
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/dictionary_story.html
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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