The Word Snoop (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Word Snoop Deborah Stevenson Dubosarsky, Ursula . The Word Snoop; illus. by Tohby Riddle. Dial, 2009246p. ISBN 978-0-8037-3406-7$16.99 R Gr. 4-9 Australian author Dubosarsky here takes on the persona of the Word Snoop, diving into a lively complement of language-arts matters. Topics include the history of the alphabet and the English language; punctuation and creations based on the rearranging, removal, and explanation of letters (anagrams, lipograms, backronyms, etc.); popular linguistic disguises such as Pig Latin, rebuses, and rhyming slang; puns and euphemisms; and so on. That's an unusually and valuably broad canvas, and the Word Snoop is a personable and chatty guide, treating language and readers with playful chumminess while including various quick guessing games (answers supplied at the ends of chapters) and a running, variably encoded, message (keys but not answers supplied at the end of the book). The retention of some Australian-focused terms and views tacitly emphasizes the message about the spice of variety in language. The inclusive and nonprescriptive approach appeals by treating readers as participants in the language rather than merely students of it (textspeak is treated respectfully as a linguistic development on a par with the rest, in fact), and there's information likely to be novel to teachers as well as students. Though the narration occasionally overdoes the jokey interjections and a few interpretations are a little broader than strict accuracy would allow, there's an overall combination of wide perspective and joyful specifics that makes this an informative and irreverent anatomy of our mother tongue. Vignette art runs to quick Thurberesque and decorative silhouettes, while touches of maroon in page borders and background add to the game-book look of the volume; a closing glossary pulls together terms mentioned, most of which were also defined in context. Copyright © 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois