Thematic Journey

Words That I Own

by Gary Zingher

In The Day of Ahmed's Secret (Heide), the title character is a young, responsible Egyptian boy who travels with his cart and donkey to deliver cooking gas to others in the Cairo marketplace.

But on this particular day, despite the colorful images, intoxicating smells, and little exchanges between vendors and buyers, Ahmed seems preoccupied. He is carrying something within him, something quite powerful.

At times he is almost bursting with the secret he will share with his family. It is a secret that guides him through the day and stirs his emotions, and he tries to anticipate how his parents will respond.

Tonight he will demonstrate that he can write his name. He can identify it and now he can write it in big bold letters. This is truly a milestone, a measure of his growth. Ahmed is his name, and finally he owns it.

All children may feel a similar sense of ownership when they learn a new vocabulary word that genuinely excites them—a dynamic word, a poetic word, a word with a delicious sound or interesting meaning. Right away, they like to try out these words, experiment with them, incorporate them into their speaking and writing, and impress others with their mastery.

Some children may become collectors of words. Donavan in Donavan's Word Jar (DeGross) is a passionate collector. He writes down words that spark his interest on little slips of yellow paper and keeps them in a glass jar.

Always observant, he collects words from everywhere—from cereal boxes, shop signs, billboards, even parades. But he snatches most of his words from people's conversations.

From his word jar, whenever he wishes, he can pull out a word like lullaby that will calm him, or words like extraterrestrial and zeppelin that arouse his sense of adventure. Owning words like hieroglyphic and serendipity make him feel intelligent, and a word like emporium, which he got from his grandma, gives him a sense of history and changing times.

With his vocabulary constantly expanding and his jar getting fuller, Donavan must figure out what to do with so many words. He has a problem to solve and seeks the advice of important grownups. Should he find a different type of container, or should he alphabetize his words and put them into a book?

At last he finds the solution at his grandma's when he visits her lounge and introduces his word jar to her neighbors, who are often argumentative. He sees how these words tickle them and encourage their interplay, somehow changing their moods. All of a sudden there is harmony and laughter, and everyone seems engaged, from the persnickety Miz Mary Lou to the cantankerousBill Gut. Feeling generous, he decides to no longer hoard his words. Instead, from time to time, he will give them away.

In Freak the Mighty (Philbrick), the hero is a tiny, articulate genius. Because of

birth defects, he has limited mobility and is required to use crutches and braces.

Freak is someone who thinks a lot about words, about their precise meanings and subtle differences. Not only do words uplift him, but they are also the source of his feeling powerful.

Many words ignite his imagination. They enable him to soar, and to sometimes transcend his pain. Having a rich vocabulary gives him a certain confidence in the world, and he uses these words to create elaborate fantasies involving knights and quests, treasures and dragons.

In fact, Freak keeps a dictionary with him at all times, and when he discovers a new word, he underlines it in red ink. He also has his own private dictionary—a homemade book where he lists his favorite words with his own definitions. The entries reveal a lot about his keenness and freshness and offbeat sense of humor.

“AARDVARK, a silly-looking creature that eats ants.”

“AARGH, what the aardvark says when it eats ants.”

“ABACUS, a finger-powered computer.”

Freak the Mighty is essentially a friendship tale between Freak and a gawky boy in a huge body named Max. How ironic that these two outcasts would become so bonded, one a word master and the other a nonreader who struggles with the simplest sentences and confuses Rs with backward Es. What do they spark in each other, and what happens when they join forces?

A specific word and its meaning provide the content for several remarkable children's books. These works illustrate how powerful and provocative certain words can be, and why people may react to them strongly.

Elbert's Bad Word (Wood) introduces Elbert, a young boy wandering his way through a fancy, grown-up garden party. When his toe gets banged by a flying croquet mallet, he blurts out his newly acquired word. He hadn't planned to say it, and he isn't even sure what it means.

All at once, every eye is on Elbert. The mood turns tense, and the moment is prolonged and excruciating. Not until now does Elbert realize that his word is a loaded word, one that can cause others to cringe. When he sees the harsh, scowling face of his mother coming toward him, he can imagine what will be happening next.

In The Composition (Skarmeta), the soccer-playing Pedro, who lives in South America under a military regime, learns firsthand the meaning of dictatorship. For Pedro, this is not just an abstract and political term. It is real and personal, and he begins to associate it with fear, unease, disruption, and secrecy.

Pedro is filled with questions, but hesitant to explore them for he worries about repercussions. He wants to find out why his friend's father has been taken away. He wonders, too, why public officials have come to his school, and why they are conducting an essay contest on “What My Family Does at Night.” Perhaps they are trying to find out about his family and their attitudes and beliefs. What if he accidentally reveals something that could harm them or lead to their arrest?

A made-up word, Frindle (Clements), becomes a source of controversy for students and staff at Lincoln Elementary School. When a prankster named Nick coins a new word which substitutes for “pen,” there are all kinds of ripples and complications.

Quickly, the word frindle catches on, and children make a point of emphasizing it whenever they speak it in a sentence. This, however, does not sit well with Mrs. Granger, the language arts teacher, who overreacts because she cannot see the humor. Mrs. Granger believes that the dictionary is the law and that using this word is an act of defiance.

The turning point comes when Nick conspires with his classmates to say “Frindle” instead of “Cheese” when they take their class picture. After that, the conflict intensifies. Students are kept after school for saying the word, and the number in detention eventually reaches 200. Soon others get involved including disgruntled school bus drivers, irate parents, and one curious reporter.

Battle lines are drawn. Nick is seen by his peers as the clever catalyst, the mastermind, and the symbol of free speech. Mrs. Granger, on the other hand, is viewed by students as the antagonist, the punisher, and the symbol of order and authority.

  With a light-hearted approach, Frindle raises questions about how new words come into being. If a word is used and means the same thing for all those who use it, is it still a word, even if it isn't in the dictionary? How do new discoveries and technologies lead to the creation of new words? What are some words that have entered the dictionary in the last ten years, and who are the people that make these decisions?

Any of these titles could spark discussions with children about the words that delight and intrigue them. Are there certain words that make them feel giggly, and other words that give them a scare? How can knowing a secret password to a hideout help children feel a sense of belonging?

Do children know any magic words like abracadabra, or words that could be used for concocting a brew or casting a spell? Have they ever made up a nonsense word? Have they even been tickled by the sound of a word, a word like sumptuous or scintillating? Did they ever use a slang word causing their parents to wonder what they really meant?

Children may want to think about unusual words that are associated with books and films. For example, why was Rumplestiltskin so determined to conceal his name? Who can describe the special place known as Dictionopolis? And is there anyone who can spell that exasperating word used by Mary Poppins, Supercalafragilisticexpialadocious?

At some point, children might enjoy sharing a favorite word with their classmates. How would they define it? When or where did they first hear it or read it? What emotions, if any, does it evoke in them? Perhaps they could illustrate their word with a photo, a print, a piece of clay, or a painting. Some children could investigate and find information about their word in a dictionary or thesaurus, or find the equivalent word in a different language.

A Creative Activities Sampler

Paper-Quilting

Cassie's Word Quilt (Ringgold) could excite children to collaborate on a word quilt with each child contributing one of the patches. On each patch, a child would create a drawing and print its label. One paper quilt could be about favorite pets, another about objects they like to collect, and a third quilt could highlight the things they like to do on Saturday. The completed quilts could be displayed in the library media center.

Signland

Children could transform a corner or section of the library media center into a place abundant with everyday signs—signs printed on paper, cardboard, posterboard, or wood. These would all be signs that children observe out in the world, signs that convey important information, give directions, or explain something. Children may want to include traffic signs, playground signs, zoo signs, protest signs, political signs, and even a few nonsense signs. (“Left Turn Only.” “Don't Feed the Llamas!” “Cam Jansen for President!”) Two books that could be used to launch this project are The Signmaker's Assistant (Arnold) and Mr. Pine's Mixed-Up Signs (Kessler).

Wedge Words

Eve Merriam's Fighting Words could stimulate discussion about how words can be used in a negative way—how they can hurt and sting, setting people apart. This humorous conflict between two young characters, Leda and Dale, shows how ridiculous they seem, and could be dramatized by different pairs of children.

The Meanwhile Plays

Meanwhile can be a word that transports. It allows readers and filmgoers to travel back and forth between places and even to travel through time. The word is often used in episodic stories where there is an element of danger like in the old-time movie serials. Two books that demonstrate its power are Meanwhile (Feiffer) and Meanwhile Back at the Ranch (Noble). Either could be used to inspire small groups of children to develop Meanwhile Plays. In these plays, a character keeps getting involved in harried situations and uses the word when he or she needs to escape, or two related characters go on parallel journeys with the action shifting between their two settings.

The Dictionary Club

Those interested could come together for six or seven sessions to explore the dictionary, focusing on individual entries. Does a specific word have more than one meaning? Is there information provided about the history of the word, its origin, and roots? Students also could invent their own word games, sponsor a Scrabble workshop in the library media center, or each create a dictionary like Freak's dictionary in Freak the Mighty with their own definitions and illustrations.

Bibliography

Books:

• Arnold, Tedd. The Signmaker's Assistant . Dial, 1992.
• Clements, Andrew. Frindle . Simon, 1996.
• DeGross, Monalisa. Donavan's Word Jar . Harper/Collins, 1994.
• Feiffer, Jules. Meanwhile . Harper/Collins, 1997.
• Frasier, Debra. Miss Alaineus; A Vocabulary Disaster . Harcourt, 2000.
• Heide, Florence. The Day of Ahmed's Secret . Lothrop, 1990.
• Kessler, Leonard. Mr. Pine's Mixed-Up Signs . Purple House, 2001.
• Merriam, Eve. Fighting Words . Morrow, 1992.
• Noble, Trinka. Meanwhile Back at the Ranch . Dial, 1987.
• Philbrick, Rodman. Freak the Mighty . Scholastic, 1993.
• Ringgold, Faith. Cassie's Word Quilt . Knopf/Random House, 2002.
• Skarmeta, Antonio. The Composition . Groundwood, 1998.
• Wood, Audrey. Elbert's Bad Word . Harcourt, 1988.