Did you know the word thesaurus actually means rich treasure?
I've been thinking a lot that treasure chest this fall.
Academic vocabulary. The power of words. And how to expose kids to words. Maybe most importantly, how to help kids fall in love with words.
In their newest collaboration, THE RIGHT WORD: ROGET AND HIS THESAURUS, Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet explore the life of one of the world's greatest word lovers, Dr. Peter Mark Roget, creator of Roget's thesaurus. Roget started making lists of words when he was eight years old and just never stopped. His original thesaurus was published in 1852 and now 170 years later, people are still drawing on that original work.
Roget's lists provided the inspiration for Melissa Sweet's collage illustrations; in fact, in her end note, she explains that she decided how she would format the illustrations when she held a copy of the original 1805 thesaurus and saw how he had organized his notes. Each illustration contains similar lists of words. I could see these lists providing some young lovers of words with inspiration to create their own "treasure chest" lists or notebooks.
Fabulous on all levels!
Don't miss two interviews with Melissa Sweet.
Seven Impossible Things before Breakfast
Colby Sharp's 5-4-3-2-1 Interview here.
It's just a "treasure" of a book, I think. One student at school is studying words, & the book will be a treasure for her, too.
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