Submitted by Ms. Tess!
In the tradition (or perhaps parody) of old spelling primers comes 13 Words, a collaboration between Lemony Snicket and Maira Kalman, introducing you to thirteen (randomly chosen?) words your young reader needs to know. Words like “despondent.” As in “the bird is despondent” with supportive illustration of a sad looking blue bird, with a rain cloud over her head, and a Kafka book to her side. Her friend the dog suggests they eat cake to cheer her up, but she’s still despondent. So the dog gets into his “convertible” and takes a trip to the “haberdashery” to get silly hats for him and the bird. Hats with “panache” of course. All of the words you eventually learn are wrapped up in song by a “mezzo-soprano” in the finale of this strange, wonderful book. Like pretty much all of Snicket’s work, 13 Words requires a grand amount of inference in order to understand the text, so it will be best enjoyed by your older, more sophisticated child. See this book listed in our catalog or check out the hilarious book trailer
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