Noah Webster and His Words, book #45

So the other day I took the girls to the public library to replenish their stock since there was "nothing to read" at our house.  While waiting for them to choose some (my stock hardly needs replenishing!) I saw this little gem in the children's section out on top.  Our local library has a pretty amazing kids section and looking at all the new books they have in Easy and Juvenile Fiction takes me back to my grad school days and elementary library days.  I couldn't resist opening this one and taking a peek.  Luckily it was a fairly quick read, but how amazing was it!!  What I love about it is not only the amazing text and pictures, but that it was really a biography in disguise!!  I love it when Easy books and poetry books sneak in Non Fiction when kids don't even realize it, like sneaking veggies into foods kids like!!  What was also fun was how when the author used a word the kids might not (or might!) know, he added a definition to it, just like the ones Noah wrote!! (see colored phrase below)

Webster’s American Dictionary is the second most popular book ever printed in English. But who was that Webster? Noah Webster (1758–1843) was a bookish Connecticut farm boy who became obsessed with uniting America through language. He spent twenty years writing two thousand pages to accomplish that, and the first 100 percent American dictionary was published in 1828 when he was seventy years old. This clever, hilariously illustrated account shines a light on early American history and the life of a man who could not rest until he’d achieved his dream. An illustrated chronology of Webster’s life makes this a picture perfect bi-og-ra-phy [noun: a written history of a person's life].  (picture and description from amazon. com)

O:)
Melissa