Wonderful Words That Tell a Tale - Tom Read Wilson - ★★★★

AUTHOR: Tom Read Wilson

ILLUSTRATOR: Ian Morris

GENRE: Children's Nonfiction, Language.

PUBLICATION DATE: October 1, 2024

RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: A standalone sequel to the marvellous etymological book, ‘Every Word Tells a Story.’ The stories accompanying the words this time are as impressive, but the words themselves are a mixed bag. Still, a great gift option for little logophiles.

Did you know that –

╰┈➤ Chaucer had to resort to a descriptive phrase to indicate a particular colour for which there was no word in English until an Indian fruit made its way to British shores?

╰┈➤ There is a connection between the bikini and the atom bomb?

╰┈➤ There is a historical reason why ‘pork’, ‘beef’, and ‘mutton’ are used but ‘pig’, ‘cow’, and ‘goat’ are not used when referring to meat in dishes?

╰┈➤ Gladiator and Gladioli share a ‘pointed’ connection?

If this fun way of learning the origins of some common and not-so-common words of the English language sounds like your idea of fun, this book is for you.

This is a standalone follow-up to ‘Every Word Tells a Story’, which also had a similar structure and intent.

This book begins with an interesting introductory note about how it came into being. Apparently, the words herein are the ones heard by the author from the children he met during his promotional interactions for the earlier book. I am not sure if every word here comes from children as some of them are so obscure. But if true, I am embarrassed that there are kids who know words like ‘orrery’ and ‘osculation’, which I haven’t ever heard in my life until I came across them in this book!

There is a glossary right at the start, explaining specialist language terms such as etymology, portmanteau and colloquial. As with the earlier, book, I truly appreciate that this is at the start and not the end of the book. So very helpful for everyone who doesn’t know these terms!

The main content covers 104 words (4 words per letter of the English alphabet), and shares their meanings and interesting etymological origins. For each letter, one word gets the pride of place, with a detailed poem focussing on its connotation and usage, its etymology, and a special fun fact related to the word. The other three words don’t get as many details but are still explained clearly.

I had relished the first book more than this one. This time, the choice of words wasn’t as impressive to me, though most of them have great origin stories. The words are varied in terms of subject as well as commonality. Some are more run-of-the-mill while others will probably never be used in spoken conversation. A couple of the words make a reappearance from the earlier book. I wish this repetition had been avoided.

The illustrations are by the same illustrator as before, and hence in the same style, but somehow, they worked slightly better for me this time around, probably because I knew what to expect.

All in all, this is a wonderful book for everyone regardless of age, as long as they enjoy words and word origins. Officially, the book is intended for middle-graders.

My thanks to Quarto Publishing Group for providing the DRC of “Wonderful Words That Tell a Tale” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.