Caldecott Award: The Right Word
Author: Jen Bryant
Illustrator: Melissa Sweet
Illustrator: Melissa Sweet
Genre: Nonfiction
Major Awards: Caldecott Medal, Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration, The Robert F. Sibert Medal
Age Group: 6-10 years old
Peter’s father passed away when he was very young and his family moved around a lot, so it was always hard for Peter to make friends. Although Peter never really made many friends, he loved to read, so much so that when he was eight years old he began writing his own book. From a very early age, Peter loved to make lists so when it came time to writing his book, rather than “writing stories, he wrote lists." He first started writing lists of Latin words and their meanings that he learned from his tutor to study, then it became much more. When Peter’s mom would ask him questions to check on him, he would always answer the same “I’m fine” so he created a list to find a word better than fine. Peter wrote lists about everything; the elements, weather, garden, animals, insects, and more. Beyond his love for writing lists, he also loved to read books that included lists. When he was a teenager, Peter discovered Linnaeus, a scientist who listed and categorized animals and plants in nature and Peter always enjoyed reading his work. Peter would often wander to create his lists and his mom would worry, but he felt that worry wasn’t exactly the right word so he made a list. He loved finding the "right word." Peter thought it would be wonderful if everyone had one place where they could go to find the "right word", and he kept that idea with him always. Peter went on to college to study to become a doctor. Due to being so young after graduating from college, before working as a doctor he spent some time as a teacher to two teenage boys, and later went on to work as a doctor. During this time Peter never stopped writing his list. When he was 45, he got married and had two children, and got his children interested in his word list as well. While some authors had written their own books of word lists, none were like Peter's. For three years, Peter focused solely on his book of word lists, perfecting it and making it organized and user-friendly. His dreams were finally realized in 1852. Peter Roget published his first book of word lists and named it a "thesaurus", meaning treasure house in Greek. Thanks to Peter Roget and his love for lists, people everywhere now have one book to find just "the right word."
The Right Word is such an interesting book that would make an excellent addition to any 3rd-5th-grade classroom library. Not only does the book give the history of the person who created the thesaurus, the book itself is also visually stunning with all the illustrations, and is incredibly informative with all of the little add-ons beside the texts such as synonyms and Latin words and meanings. Seeing as the book is a Caldecott honor book, I would first take students on a picture walk through the book and ask students what are some things they see and notice about the illustrations as an anticipatory set before reading the book itself. This book could also pave the way for a lesson on how to use a thesaurus to help find "the right word" when writing. The teacher could then do a few examples with the students using the thesaurus and have the students use the thesaurus to incorporate new vocabulary into their papers. Growing up I always loved using big words so I would use the thesaurus to look up the word I knew and find better alternatives for the word that meant the same thing and use those instead. I hardly see thesauruses being used anymore, and they were always such a wonderful tool to help improve my vocabulary and writing and helped to prepare me for the 4th-grade STAAR exam (at the time it was TAKS), and is a skill I would definitely love to help bring back and integrate into the class.
Peter’s father passed away when he was very young and his family moved around a lot, so it was always hard for Peter to make friends. Although Peter never really made many friends, he loved to read, so much so that when he was eight years old he began writing his own book. From a very early age, Peter loved to make lists so when it came time to writing his book, rather than “writing stories, he wrote lists." He first started writing lists of Latin words and their meanings that he learned from his tutor to study, then it became much more. When Peter’s mom would ask him questions to check on him, he would always answer the same “I’m fine” so he created a list to find a word better than fine. Peter wrote lists about everything; the elements, weather, garden, animals, insects, and more. Beyond his love for writing lists, he also loved to read books that included lists. When he was a teenager, Peter discovered Linnaeus, a scientist who listed and categorized animals and plants in nature and Peter always enjoyed reading his work. Peter would often wander to create his lists and his mom would worry, but he felt that worry wasn’t exactly the right word so he made a list. He loved finding the "right word." Peter thought it would be wonderful if everyone had one place where they could go to find the "right word", and he kept that idea with him always. Peter went on to college to study to become a doctor. Due to being so young after graduating from college, before working as a doctor he spent some time as a teacher to two teenage boys, and later went on to work as a doctor. During this time Peter never stopped writing his list. When he was 45, he got married and had two children, and got his children interested in his word list as well. While some authors had written their own books of word lists, none were like Peter's. For three years, Peter focused solely on his book of word lists, perfecting it and making it organized and user-friendly. His dreams were finally realized in 1852. Peter Roget published his first book of word lists and named it a "thesaurus", meaning treasure house in Greek. Thanks to Peter Roget and his love for lists, people everywhere now have one book to find just "the right word."
The Right Word is such an interesting book that would make an excellent addition to any 3rd-5th-grade classroom library. Not only does the book give the history of the person who created the thesaurus, the book itself is also visually stunning with all the illustrations, and is incredibly informative with all of the little add-ons beside the texts such as synonyms and Latin words and meanings. Seeing as the book is a Caldecott honor book, I would first take students on a picture walk through the book and ask students what are some things they see and notice about the illustrations as an anticipatory set before reading the book itself. This book could also pave the way for a lesson on how to use a thesaurus to help find "the right word" when writing. The teacher could then do a few examples with the students using the thesaurus and have the students use the thesaurus to incorporate new vocabulary into their papers. Growing up I always loved using big words so I would use the thesaurus to look up the word I knew and find better alternatives for the word that meant the same thing and use those instead. I hardly see thesauruses being used anymore, and they were always such a wonderful tool to help improve my vocabulary and writing and helped to prepare me for the 4th-grade STAAR exam (at the time it was TAKS), and is a skill I would definitely love to help bring back and integrate into the class.
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