Snapperwhippers aren’t the only readers who will find this equally delumptious as a dictionary, a source of inspiration, and...
Wordplay has its day in this extra-usual compilation of lexicographical delights drawn from Dahl’s works.
“ONLY REALLY INTERESTING WORDS are allowed in this dictionary,” writes compiler Rennie, and the contents cleave to that stricture with a wacksey (“splendidly huge”) mix of those conventional but nonetheless gloriumptious locutions (like “aardvark” or “sneeze,” printed in black) and wondercrump original coinages (in blue) with which the master’s prose is laced. Every entry comes with a brief definition and one or more sentences from a specified work quoted to demonstrate usage. Each also includes part of speech, alternate forms, and, very often, either cross references (“Another mushious fruit is the snozzberry”) or a linguistic excursion into grammar, the history of words, real-world cognates, or derivations. One frequently recurring extra feature challenges would-be versifiers to find “Ringbelling Rhymes,” and another offers examples and guidelines for making any writing zippfizz along by “Gobblefunking with Words.” Major characters, creatures, and candies also earn diddly (“individual or distinct”) slots in the alphabet. That the pages are positively festooned with Blake’s color cartoon illustrations, all drawn from the novels, just puts the golden ticket into the Wonka bar.
Snapperwhippers aren’t the only readers who will find this equally delumptious as a dictionary, a source of inspiration, and a way of revisiting a shelf of phizz-whizzing classics. (Reference. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-19-273645-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
In a large, handsome format, Tarnowska offers six tales plus an abbreviated version of the frame story, retold in formal but contemporary language and sandwiched between a note on the Nights’ place in her childhood in Lebanon and a page of glossary and source notes. Rather than preserve the traditional embedded structure and cliffhanger cutoffs, she keeps each story discrete and tones down the sex and violence. This structure begs the question of why Shahriyar lets Shahrazade [sic] live if she tells each evening’s tale complete, but it serves to simplify the reading for those who want just one tale at a time. Only the opener, “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp,” is likely to be familiar to young readers; in others a prince learns to control a flying “Ebony Horse” by “twiddling” its ears, contending djinn argue whether “Prince Kamar el Zaman [or] Princess Boudour” is the more beautiful (the prince wins) and in a Cinderella tale a “Diamond Anklet” subs for the glass slipper. Hénaff’s stylized scenes of domed cityscapes and turbaned figures add properly whimsical visual notes to this short but animated gathering. (Folktales. 10-12)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84686-122-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A prolific reporter of paranormal phenomena strains to bring that same sense of wonder to 12 “transposed”—that is, paraphrased from interviews but related in first person—accounts of extraordinary experiences. Some feats are more memorable than others; compared to Bethany Hamilton’s return to competitive surfing after having her arm bitten off by a shark and Mark Inglis’ climb to the top of Mount Everest on two prosthetic legs, Joe Hurley’s nine-month walk from Cape Cod to Long Beach, Calif., is anticlimactic. Dean Karnazes hardly seems to be exerting himself as he runs 50 marathons on 50 consecutive days, and the comments of an Air Force Thunderbirds pilot and a military Surgeon’s Assistant in Iraq come off as carefully bland. The survivors of a hurricane at sea, a lightning strike and a tornado, on the other hand, tell more compelling stories. Most of the color photos are at least marginally relevant, and each entry closes with a short note on its subject’s subsequent activities. Casual browsers will be drawn to at least some of the reconstructed narratives in this uneven collection. A reading list would have been more useful than the superfluous index, though. Fun, in a scattershot sort of way. (Nonfiction browsing item. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4027-6711-1
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
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