The Word Spy

Ursula Dubosarsky (author)

Thoby Riddle (illus)

Random House, Australia: 2008; 240pp

ISBN: 9780670072279

Genres: English, non-fiction, factual, information text

English is a funny (as in strange) language. Very few people would deny that. It's a mish-mash of cast-off bits of other languages with a number of inventions of our own. There are rules - but most of them have exceptions.

The invention of the printing press as well as the work of individuals such as Samuel Johnson changed English forever - both written and spoken. It took centuries for the odd dots, squiggles and lines that are punctuation to develop any degree of consistent usage - and many would suggest that there's no such thing as consistent punctuation.

Ursula Dubosarsky shares her love of all things related to language - spoken and written. Many such books are available for adult readers so it's wonderful to see a writer recognise that there are also children out there who want to know the how, why and where-did-it-come-from of our crazy language. Full of sly humour, wit and with a puzzle or code in every chapter, The Word Spy is one of those special books to dip into on a regular basis. Rather like Honeydukes, in Harry Potter, The Word Spy is packed with that which will tantalise the (in this case intellectual) taste buds. Covering everything from the familiar to the just plain weird, The Word Spy will delight gifted readers.