Tohby RiddleAnmeldelser

From Cockburn Libraries (Australia): "The hilarious story about a smelly bug whose unique talent saves the day. Stinkbug can really stink. But when it starts bugging his friends, Stinkbug wonders if it's time to stop doing what stink bugs do best..."

Brilliant funny interesting informative and did I say funny

This picture book tugged at my heartstrings. A tale of the genuine friendship between a donkey and a fox. Different, yet similar. A ray of hope being not only being Clive and Humphrey's friendship, but a play they attend after finding tickets. It's an amazing truth that no matter how different we each may be, there is something that connects us all and may even illicit the same emotions and feelings. I love when I stumble on picture books or children's literature that can help you talk to younger readers about serious topics. This is one of those gems. There are some definite undertones of loneliness and poverty, and how it has a different impact on each of us.½

This book is awesome! (hyperbole) I love great book, a grook (portmanteau).

not a very satisfactory ending

Picture book that is on the VPRC. Nice tale about a boy bringing joy to the residents of a city apartment...tale of being optimistic and seeing the world like a child does.

This sequel to the delightful The Word Spy focuses more on grammar than it on the history and quirks of English. It does so humorously, aiming to be entertaining and accessible for its target audience: namely, children. In this respect, the book is a success.

As an adult who is reasonably well-versed in the various parts of speech, it was less engaging. Which is an observation, not a complaint. I was still amused or interested by bits of it.

A book for children about the history and quirks of the English language. I’ve been reading another book about the development of the English as a language, so those parts in The Word Spy mostly just summarised what I already knew - but I am not the book’s intended audience.

And I was thoroughly entertained by the rest of the book. It’s full of interesting details about language and history, clever word play and amusing illustrations. There were things I didn’t know, like the origin of the word apostrophe, or had misremembered, like the origin of Mrs Malaprop, or didn’t know the name for, like tautologies. I knew about anagrams, but hadn’t heard of lipograms (not using words with a certain letter) or pangrams (using all the letters of the alphabet). I hadn’t seen the Monty Python sketch about the ex-parrot recommended in the section about euphemisms.

This is published in the US as The Word Snoop, which seems like a strange title change. (What’s wrong with the word ‘spy’?)

I suppose in the end, language, like history, is made by human beings. And human beings are so hopelessly different and disorganised, they can never quite agree on anything. They’re only humans, after all. (Sigh.)
Still, maybe there’s something special about having these crazy plurals and even crazier spellings. I sometimes think English is like a big old wall that people have been scribbling on for centuries.½

10 year-old me would have rated this 5 stars, and at age 15, perhaps 4*s. By now I've seen so much of what's shared here, and am so inured to the hyper jollity of sentences such as All you have to do is open this book, take a deep breath, and dive inside," that I cannot say I enjoyed it anymore than 3 stars' worth.

The description definitely exaggerates. There is a lot more to learn about language and word-play and grammar and phonetics and linguistics, etc. etc., than could ever be covered in 246 small and openly-designed pages.

That all being said, if you know a young reader who is beginning to learn how much fun words can be, this is a great place to start, and worth buying (rather than just borrowing from the library). The author made the puzzles just difficult enough to be challenging, but not so difficult one wants to flip to the back to see the answers. And the answers aren't even always given directly, either.

We saw nothing Aussie-centric. But something may have been lost in the US edition, as I have only 246 pp. But don't worry about it. Good book for any English reader, especially the young & light-hearted.

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Dubosarsky's love of the English language and her ability to reach children comes through very well in this book. More guidebook than textbook, this fun and conversational little book will introduce many lovers of language to all the many sides of what makes language fun, from formation of alphabets to the use of codes to the linguistic reboot that technology is responsible for. The book includes the history of the English language and much of the quirky and amusing things that can be done with the language, like anagrams, palindromes, puns, and even spoonerisms. More importantly, it explains what they are, where they came from, and what some examples can be found. The illustrations and inserts aren't prominent or overwhelming (which is good in a book of its size: small but thick) and the author has even used a code to end each chapter which helps the reader to digest what that chapter contained; this code then reveals a message for the budding linguist to encourage continued use of what is learned.

A realistic story with a touch of the absurd. I'm not sure how much kids like these, sometimes it feels as if they're written more with an adult audience in mind. But, it's fairly original and the illustrations, which are a mix of drawings and mixed media, are interesting. For more stories in the same vein, check out for instance [b:John Jensen Feels Different|13238951|John Jensen Feels Different (Johannes Jensen, #1)|Henrik Hovland|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348088433s/13238951.jpg|18437467], or [b:Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies|662787|Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies|Pija Lindenbaum|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1335184004s/662787.jpg|648855].

Dubosatsky loves word play. And that's what she takes on in this little book for children. It's a fun romp.½

Delightful!

The description of places Tom visits in his travels around Sydney town felt familiar. Having grown up in Sydney in the 80’s I fell for the back drop of Sydney and its sentiments. I loved the tape deck in the car, the stupid humor and obsessional discussions about girls, music and art. I liked the Bob Dylan reference to the song, 'Bob Dylans, Dream'.

'That song was a bit of a favourite of ours, it was a sad song really, about a guy riding on some train going west, falls asleep and stares and starts to dream about himself and the first friends he had. And how with teary eyes he stares into the room where his friends and he spend many an afternoon, laughing and singing till the early hours. And how as the years passed, each friend went their separate way. And how he’d give anything to be sitting in that room again…’ (Riddle, pg 79).

The importance of friendship, the question of what to do after leaving school and finding one's feet in the world are central themes of the book. An enjoyable read.

An anteater, an elephant, a turtle, and a flamingo break out of City Zoo and, disguised as people, try to make a life for themselves on the outside.

Thoughts and Feelings: Delightful! Simply delightful! I had to write the thoughts and feelings section of this review first because I didn't think I could write a retelling without expressing my enthusiasm for this book like it was fact. I'm passionate about language, writing, and logic and English spelling has never made any sense to me. At least now I have some idea why the language is so poorly planned, and why I have to live with it. Also... FUCH SUN (spoonerism)! I felt more like I was raying than pleading.

Review: The word snoop answers questions about how the rules of spelling the English language seem to have so many exceptions. She explains why English is so strange, how punctuation came about and how it's used. Then, she celebrates all the magical fun this quirky language and alphabet invites with anagrams, pangrams, lipograms, acronyms, backronyms, palindromes, Mnemonics, Oxymorons, Pig Latin, the Rebus, Rhyming Slang, Puns, Homophones, Mondegreens, Onomatopoeias, Tongue Twisters, Portmanteau Words, Euphemisms, Doublespeak, Spoonerisms, Cliches, Tuatology, Nicknames, Eponyms, Tom Swifties, Malapropisms, Pen Names, Telegramese, Texting, and Emotocons. The end of every chapter has a word puzzle that you can solve and piece together to form a message.

So much fun! This was a highly entertaining book on the history of the English language, and how fun language can be. There were some things I already knew, like acronyms, euphemisms, and pig latin, but I guarantee you that you will learn a lot of new tricks and interesting information in here, and it's written so well I really couldn't put it down at times, I was so hooked! One of my favorite parts were codes to break at the end of each chapter that go together to form a secret message from the author, and little quizzes/challenges throughout the book. Tons of fun, I highly recommend it!

Book for kids. Not spoilable. Target audience was too young for the book to be one I would find enjoyable. It went fast.

Funny cartoons, some of them quite deep!

Clive Prendergast is a fox that lives successfully in the city... wasn't sure if the kids would like this one but they did. Great layered pictures.½