It’s Perfect Picture Book Friday and – can you believe it? – the official last day of summer 2018!
I love the crisp air, the jeweled colors, and the cider donuts of autumn, but I feel like summer went by in a blink!
I hope all your falls get off to a lovely start this weekend with some family apple picking, or an outdoor music festival…or maybe a trip to Princeton Children’s Book Festival – that’s where I’m headed! 🙂
For today’s Perfect Picture Book I decided to go the educational route… but it’s also tons of fun! Have a look!
Title: Noah Webster And His Words
Written By: Jeri Chase Ferris
Illustrated By: Vincent X. Kirsch
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books For Young Readers, 2012, nonfiction
Suitable For Ages: 3-7
Themes/Topics: American history, vocabulary/language, dictionaries, biography, nonfiction
Opening: “Noah Webster always knew he was right, and he never got tired of saying so (even if, sometimes, he wasn’t). He was, he said, “full of CON-FI-DENCE” [noun: belief that one is right] from the very beginning.”
Brief Synopsis: This book tells the story of Noah Webster’s life and how he wrote the first American dictionary in an effort both to educate and to help unite the new United States.
Links To Resources: The book itself is a resource as it teaches the life of Noah Webster and the period of American history is was part of. There is a useful timeline in the back matter as well as a section entitled “More About Noah Webster” and a helpful bibliography. For a fun classroom game, play Dictionary (where one student chooses a word from the dictionary and writes down the correct definition and everyone else writes down a made up definition. All definitions are read aloud and the class votes for which is the real one…and you see if the real one wins or one of the made up ones!)
Why I Like This Book: Not only is this book interesting – full of information about Noah Wester and his creation of the first American dictionary – it’s fun! There is a surprising amount of humor, both in the text and in the illustrations. I also love the clever way some of the vocabulary words in the text are woven in like dictionary entries! The book brings Noah Webster to life in a way that illuminates his personality. It’s a perfect example of how to write nonfiction so that young readers enjoy the learning experience.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂
For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.
PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂
Hope to see anyone who is in the neighborhood at the Princeton Children’s Book Festival tomorrow! 🙂
Susanna Leonard Hill 
This book sounds lovely! I love your classroom game ideas! This put me in mind of The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus, by Jen Bryant & Melissa Sweet, another great book about a wordsmith.
They’d be a good pair to read together! Thanks for mentioning that, Andrea! And the Dictionary game is one we used to play on the day before Christmas vacation in Latin class when I was a kid 🙂
A perfect picture book for back-to-school month & for folks heading to a university town for the Book Festival!
So true! It would be even more perfect if we were going to Yale… but Princeton’s in the ballpark 🙂
Next time we get together we must play Dictionary! Hehe! Great pick for back too school as Patricia notes!
It’s a fun game with a bunch of people. Probably even more fun with adult beverages involved 🙂
What a wonderful back-to- school share with students, with historical information they don’t is the foundation of what they learn today. Perfect share. And, I love the activities you shared.
Thanks, Pat! So glad you liked it! I can’t believe I never read this book before – it’s been out for quite awhile!
I love that they wove humor through the text and illustrations, making it fun to learn about Noah, dictionaries, and history. Love the activity – a classroom friendly/educational version of “Balderdash.” 🙂 Have a great weekend yourself.
It is a fun book, Maria! And glad you liked the game! As I told Andrea in the first comment, we used to play it on the day before Christmas vacation in Latin class when I was in middle school 🙂
Sweet dictionary book. I wonder what it says about cider donuts because that’s all Mom and I can think about now. …so thanks a lot for that! #headingouttoshopfordonuts
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Sadly, the book’s only flaw is that is does not mention cider donuts! Can you believe it?! Good luck on your donut hunt 🙂
This is such a fun book!
Isn’t it, though? 🙂
I love the idea of reading about Webster and his words! Looks like a great book. I especially love your dictionary game idea, I’m going to try that one out on my kids.
Glad you like it, Jean! We used to have a lot of fun with it – trying to sound believable 🙂