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The Right Word by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet, Reviewed by Donalyn Miller
“Words—so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”—Nathaniel Hawthorne
I learned the power of words early. Whining, breaking my things, interrupting me while I was reading, my little sisters were the bane of my childhood existence. I knew I couldn’t pinch them or lock them in a closet, so I used my vocabulary to exact my revenge—calling them dolts, nitwits, and nettlesome prats whenever they pushed me too far. I still remember my sister, Abbie, complaining to our mother, “Tell her to stop using words I don’t know!”
I was a voracious reader and each book I read added more words to my horde—“radiant” from Charlotte’s Web, “chortle” from Alice in Wonderland, “nerd” from Seuss’s If I Ran the Zoo. Words comforted, delighted, and inspired me. A life spent reading is a life spent addicted to words.
On my sixteenth birthday, my stepdad gave me a bound volume of Shakespeare and a paperback copy of Roget’s Thesaurus. I dedicated an hour each day to reading them—30 minutes for Will and 30 minutes for the next section of the thesaurus—adding words like “multitudinous” and “bombastic” to my treasure trove.
While I valued the words Roget’s packed volume gave me, I admit I never gave its creator or the book’s origins much thought. Thankfully, Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet have brought Peter Mark Roget’s tremendous accomplishment into the light with their newest picture book collaboration, The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus (Eerdmans, 2014). 
Born in 1799, Englishman Roget spent his childhood making lists as a coping mechanism–creating order in his challenging life. Bookish and shy, Peter spent hours organizing lists of words using his own taxonomy—grouping words by their meanings. Roget was a Renaissance man—an accomplished scientist and inventor, as well as a writer. (He also invented the slide rule and the first pocket chess set.)
Throughout his long life, Roget continued collecting and sorting words until finally publishing the first thesaurus in 1852. This remarkable book has remained in print ever since. Thesaurus means “treasure house” and Roget wanted his book of words to share the riches that words provide to all, “I want everyone to be able to use my word book, not just doctors, politicians, and lawyers, but cobblers, fishmongers, and factory workers.”
The Right Word brings three geniuses together at the top of their game—Bryant, Sweet, and Peter Roget. Jen Bryant presents a humanizing portrait of Roget revealing his quiet spirit and brilliant mind. Introducing Roget as a child before moving into his adult accomplishments gives young readers an opportunity to connect with Peter.
Melissa Sweet’s stunning illustrations festooned with leaves, birds, ledger pages, and words ribbons burst open like overstuffed museum cabinets—revealing delight after delight. Readers will love poring through the illustrations—examining each word woven throughout Sweet’s collages.
What a perfect book to introduce generations of readers to the power of words and spark interest in Roget’s life and work. What a gift. I will never look at a thesaurus the same way, again.
Colby Sharp, John Schu and Nerdy Book Club have combined our word power to celebrate The Right Word in our trifecta posts today. Check out Colby’s post here. Check out John’s post here.
Glimpse into Melissa’s Sweet’s creative processes designing the illustrations for The Right Word in this interview at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.
**Thanks to everyone who responded to my call on Facebook for your favorite words. I have included all of them in the word cloud at the top of this post.
OK, so I used to introduce myself on day one as someone who loves words. I had a shtick. I talked about how I used to read the dictionary and the, get this, phone book. True. And then I introduced my “word of the day -W.O.D.” special homework assignment and here’s the kicker….I let them think it was ostensibly their parent/guardian/siblings’ assignment. Oh the glory of being a word-lover and creating more of those in my 3rd graders. We had our W.O.D. train, too. The words hung around the room and out in the hallway. Then I got those 3rd graders to incorporate the words into meaningful and interesting sentences (parent hw models helped with this). Then encouraged them to use “just the right word” in their own writing be they daily writing, “on demand” tasks….ie required quarterly writing assessments or poetry, our real love. Next we captured words as we read. Or talked. Kids would bring in examples they heard at home on the tv or in the car on the radio. They would raise their hands rabidly when I read a word in a read aloud. We had lists all over. By de-mystifying “big” words in third grade, I also helped their reading skills in a very natural and kid-friendly way. So I cannot wait to see this book! Wordsmiths can be created. Having my students recite poetry together with no test or pressure or homework, also added to the fun of saying “just the right word in just the right place”. Last week I taught the word “bog” to 3rd graders using Mary Ann Hoberman’s scientific gem, “Frog”. Creating a habit of mind, making words be something intriguing and fun to 8 and 9 years olds is not just a good thing. It borders on truly magical. Thank you for this gift of a book review, Donalyn, Jen Bryant and Melissa Stewart. Eventually I will share my “Stump the Teacher” vocabulary game for 5th graders. This was another huge hit. Former students from both grades still talk to me about the game, the poems and the W.O.D.s we came to know and love. Like I said. Magical.
The book is on its way, love their previous collaborations, too, can’t wait to share with different students! Thanks!
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I, too, am a lexophile, Donalyn! Anything to instill a love of words and language sounds WONderful to me 🙂