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MAY I HAVE A WORD? by Caron Levis

MAY I HAVE A WORD?

by Caron Levis ; illustrated by Andy Rash

Pub Date: May 23rd, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-374-34880-9
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Alphabet-letter magnets come to life to explore how the letters C and K share the same sound.

When the refrigerator magnets decide to tell a story, C and K offer up a variety of possible protagonists: cat or kitten, crab or koala, clown or kangaroo, and so on. Each potential character is depicted in a childlike crayon drawing, affixed to the refrigerator’s blue surface with the appropriate letter magnets, all of whom have remarkably expressive eyes. Suddenly K accuses C of theft. “Everybody knows the K sound is my sound. Every time you start one of my K words, you just CONFUSE everybody!” C suggests they share the sound, but K retorts that C keeps “taking all the good words!…Like CASTLE and CLOUDS!” The argument continues until they storm off to separate sides of the refrigerator, refusing to stand next to each other. This concerns the other letters, who point out that if C and K won’t stand together “there wouldn’t be any SMOCKS or BLOCKS! No STICKS or LICKS! No ROCKETS or POCKETS or PICKLES!” Indeed, “the world would be quite out of LUCK.” These nightmare scenarios are depicted with letters arranged to form the incomplete words in an effective demonstration of phonemic principles. The clever letters even address the concept of a silent K when followed by an N, as in in the word “knight.”

Keen and clever with a knack for clear instruction.

(Picture book. 6-8)