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A review by lisavegan
Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Charles Waters, Irene Latham
5.0
Great gift book for ages 8-18! It might also be fine for college students/young adults and also older adults. When I borrowed this book from the library in late February or early March (it’s the last checked out library book I’m getting to these many months later) I was expecting a picture book for preschoolers or early elementary school students. This book is much more advanced than that. I know that this is a children’s book but my opinion is that to get the full value of it, it’s best for older children, young adults, and also adults.
I love the format. It’s wonderfully illustrated with mostly full page illustrations with the text incorporated into the pictures. The art is glorious, fun, beautiful, and varied. Each letter has one to four words and for each word there is a poem (and the poem’s form is included, and I learned a LOT) and a quote (many are great) and a true life very short story about an event in their life or musings about something of importance to one of the authors, with a “Try it!” suggestion inspired by the biographical account.
I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy or feel interested in this book’s contents but I did. When I was a kid/teen I would have loved this book. I avoided reading it and considered putting it with my library materials ready to return when the pandemic rules permit. I’m glad that I decided to read it.
The word open for the letter O is why this book is on my vegan shelf. I am thrilled. (This was a 5 star book for me before I got to the letter O.)
Unlike virtually all other “alphabet books” the X word was not a cheat, though not as well used/defined as I would have liked.
In the back of the book is an authors’ note, a list of the books and poems and speech referenced in the book, and a list of additional recommended books, a list of poetry resources, an index of poetic forms (47 of them!!! I wish I’d read that section first!), and gratitude lists that are the acknowledgments pages, and bios and photos of the two authors and the illustrator. Really there are two photos of the three book creators. Cute illustration at the end with them appearing in it!
The words: Acceptance, Ally, Belonging, Compassion, Courage, Create, Dialogue, Diversity, Dream, Empathy, Equality, Exercise, Experiment, Forgiveness, Freedom, Fuel, Gratitude, (Epitaph for) Hate, Hope, Humility, Intention, Justice, Kindness, Laughter, Listen, Love, Mindfulness, Nature, Netiquette, Open, Pause, Peace, Question, Reach, Release, Respect, Service, Shero, Team, Tenacity, Upstander, Voice, Vulnerable, (Bear) Witness, Wonder, Xenial, Yes, Zest
I’d be delighted to see this book as part of every family’s book collection, in every library, in every school/classroom, and in every psych treatment center (children, teens, adults,) youth centers, etc. It’s a great book for independent readers and also perfect for sharing and discussing. Highly recommended!
I love the format. It’s wonderfully illustrated with mostly full page illustrations with the text incorporated into the pictures. The art is glorious, fun, beautiful, and varied. Each letter has one to four words and for each word there is a poem (and the poem’s form is included, and I learned a LOT) and a quote (many are great) and a true life very short story about an event in their life or musings about something of importance to one of the authors, with a “Try it!” suggestion inspired by the biographical account.
I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy or feel interested in this book’s contents but I did. When I was a kid/teen I would have loved this book. I avoided reading it and considered putting it with my library materials ready to return when the pandemic rules permit. I’m glad that I decided to read it.
The word open for the letter O is why this book is on my vegan shelf. I am thrilled. (This was a 5 star book for me before I got to the letter O.)
Unlike virtually all other “alphabet books” the X word was not a cheat, though not as well used/defined as I would have liked.
In the back of the book is an authors’ note, a list of the books and poems and speech referenced in the book, and a list of additional recommended books, a list of poetry resources, an index of poetic forms (47 of them!!! I wish I’d read that section first!), and gratitude lists that are the acknowledgments pages, and bios and photos of the two authors and the illustrator. Really there are two photos of the three book creators. Cute illustration at the end with them appearing in it!
The words: Acceptance, Ally, Belonging, Compassion, Courage, Create, Dialogue, Diversity, Dream, Empathy, Equality, Exercise, Experiment, Forgiveness, Freedom, Fuel, Gratitude, (Epitaph for) Hate, Hope, Humility, Intention, Justice, Kindness, Laughter, Listen, Love, Mindfulness, Nature, Netiquette, Open, Pause, Peace, Question, Reach, Release, Respect, Service, Shero, Team, Tenacity, Upstander, Voice, Vulnerable, (Bear) Witness, Wonder, Xenial, Yes, Zest
I’d be delighted to see this book as part of every family’s book collection, in every library, in every school/classroom, and in every psych treatment center (children, teens, adults,) youth centers, etc. It’s a great book for independent readers and also perfect for sharing and discussing. Highly recommended!