The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus
Bryant, Jennifer, and Melissa Sweet. The Right Word : Roget and His Thesaurus. Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans Books For Young Readers, 2014. ISBN: 9780802853851
2. PLOT SUMMARY
Peter Roget moved so often that books became his companions. After his father’s death, he began making lists in a self-published book. He began with a list of Latin words with their English translations. Each year he added lists to his book. With his mother constantly worried, he struggled to come up with the right word for his emotion. An idea came to him to write a list of words to find the right words. This led to an idea to create a book of words for all the world’s ideas in one place. He spent the next few years completing med school and teaching boys while taking them worldwide. He began his practice in England during the days and continued to write lists at night. He completed his first book in 1805 and used it during lectures to colleagues. He began a family and in his older years authors were publishing their own word lists but they weren’t as good as Roget’s. He spent the next few years organizing and adding lists. In 1852 he published Roget’s Thesaurus which became an instant bestseller.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
For accuracy, this book contains the author’s note with experts cited and bibliographies. The author and illustrator have collaborated on several books that won a Caldecott honor and NCTE Orbis Pictus Award. The text and illustrations are all correct. The book is organized in a logical timeline of events of Roget’s life. The layout of the book is simple for readers with a clear sequence of what led up to the publication of his thesaurus. At the back of the book there are author and illustrator notes, bibliography, for further reading, and sources of the information. The design of the book is my favorite part. The collages, labels, and timelines are unique and engage the reader in a fun way. You forget it’s an informational book because of the layout. There is an actual page from Roget’s original wordbook on one of the pages. The illustrations were created with watercolor, collage and mixed media. The illustrations are appropriate because of their classification and scientific illustrations. The style of the book is appropriate for the reading audience; the vocabulary is on the right level. They used the exact vocabulary from his thesaurus to be clear. It encourages readers to be creative with words when speaking or writing. This book received The Robert F. Sibert Medal and Caldecott Honor. I think this is a wonderful book to introduce synonyms and the vastness of words.
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Booklist starred (August 2014 (Vol. 110, No. 22))
Grades K-3. Bryant’s and Sweet’s talents combine to make the lowly thesaurus fascinating in this beautifully illustrated picture-book biography of Peter Mark Roget. Born in the late eighteenth century, shy Roget was prone to wandering alone and began keeping lists of words at a young age. Even as he went to medical school and became a talented and respected physician, he still kept his book of word lists, gradually improving on the concept until he published his first thesaurus, classified thematically rather than alphabetically as it is today, in 1852. Echoing Roget’s obsession with words, Sweet’s intricate and elaborate collage illustrations—made out of textbooks, graph paper, maps, fabric, typewriter keys, and other found objects—put words on center stage. Lists in wildly expressive handwritten fonts along with cut-paper assemblages stuff the dynamic pages, even the appended timeline and endpapers, with arresting detail. Pivotal moments in Roget’s life get a similar treatment: terms related to plants bloom in tendrils around a watercolor illustration of Roget on one of his many walks. In brilliant pages teeming with enthusiasm for language and learning, Bryant and Sweet (A Splash of Red, 2013) joyfully celebrate curiosity, the love of knowledge, and the power of words.
5. CONNECTIONS
Give students a vocabulary word and have them create a list of synonyms.
Peter made lists of words everywhere. Have students make lists of food words, school words, etc.
Similar book:
Ferris, Jeri, and Vincent Kirsch. Noah Webster and His Words. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. ISBN: 9780544582422
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