Ursula Dubosarsky (Author)
Ursula Dubosarskyis widely regarded as one of the most talented and original writers in Australia today. She is the author of over 40 books for children and young adults, which have won a number of national prizes, including the NSW, Victorian, South Australian and Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards.
Alongside her fiction for older children, Ursula has a wonderful talent for picture books such as the highly popularThe Terrible PlopandToo Many Elephants in This House, which have both been adapted as successful stage productions. She has also written the non-fiction Word Spybooks about the English language, both of which also won major national awards.
Ursula has a PhD in English literature from Macquarie University and lives in Sydney with her family.
Tohby Riddle (Illustrator)
‘Tohby knits well but is also a chatterbox, so his socks are not finished. I hope he finishes them in the holidays.’
Many years have passed since this mixed primary school report on Tohby Riddle. And although his socks remain unfinished, he has been able to complete other undertakings, including a degree in art and a degree in architecture — neither of which involved any knitting.
Tohby Riddle is the award-winning creator of picture books such as The Singing Hat, The Great Escape from City Zoo and Irving the Magician (all three were shortlisted for CBC Picture Book of the Year and more), and the cult favourite, The Royal Guest. In 2008, Tohby illustrated The Word Spy by Ursula Duborsarsky, which won the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literaturein the 2009 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and was an honour book in the 2009 CBC Book of the Year awards.A much-anticipatedsecond book, The Return of the Word Spy,was published in May 2010.
His picture book, Nobody Owns the Moon won theBest Designed Picture Book in the 2009 APA Book Design Awards, and was shortlisted for both the 2009 CBC Picture Book of the Year and the Patricia Wrightson Prize in the 2009 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.
Tohby also has two cartoon collectionsWhat’s the Big Idea? and Pink Freud. The cartoons in these books first appeared before a wide audience in Good Weekend — the weekend magazine of the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne’s The Age, where he was cartoonist for nearly ten years. Some of the cartoons have been hung in the National Museum of Australia.
In May 2009, Tohby published his first novel for the young adult/adult market called The Lucky Ones. His latest picture book, My Uncle’s Donkey, was published in August 2010.Tohby Riddle lives with his family in the Blue Mountains, outside Sydney, Australia.
This nifty little volume is proof that the English language is not only alive, it’s kicking butt and taking names. Language junkies are familiar with the author’s several dozen books and probably his website and maillist, too (for which he slips in a couple of plugs, but that’s okay). What he’s interested in here is the invention (or the organic rise, perhaps) of new words by all parts of society, from teen slang that mostly lasts two weeks to techie terms that have rooted themselves firmly in the wider culture, like “dot-com” or the verb “to google.” He avoids stunt words (deliberate cleverness by some writer) and nonce words (which appear only once and die immediately). None of his examples existed before c.1980, and all have established a track record by appearing in a variety of public media. (He’s aware of Sniglets, incidently, but points out that not one of those introduced by Rich Hall has actually entered the language.) Some new words are so obvious and so apt once you’ve heard them, you can’t believe no one ever thought of them before. (He describes S. J. Perelman’s delight when a mechanic told him his car had been “totaled.”) The chapters are organized by source or context — modern angst, modern politics and war, activism of all flavors, political correctness (itself an apt and sneering recent invention), advertising, the Internet revolution, pop psychology, baby-boom-ism, privacy and security (not to forget 9/11, now an overused shorthand), and even “Dilbert.” He gives examples of usage from the media, too, some of which are a hoot. Still, there are gaps in the language for which no word has yet appeared, like a reasonable term for each other by adults who regularly go on dates (“Boyfriend” and “girlfriend” are a bit silly when you’re over forty). This book is a great time-sink (that’s in here, too), both fun and informative.
From Booklist
Longtime wordsmith McFedries, author of more than 40 books on language, believes that new words are one of life’s «small excellencies.» Neologisms, he asserts, are one of the best ways of understanding a changing world and culture. For McFedries’ purposes, a word is considered «new» if it doesn’t appear in any general dictionary, first appeared in the written record no earlier than 1980, and has a track record. Although he does fudge his criteria, he offers many informative comments about why and how new words are formed, noting three essential factors: the word is easy to pronounce and understand, is short, and fills a gap in the language. In 22 chapters, McFedries lists new words in boldface and provides definitions and cultural context; chapter topics include relationships («Google dating»), war («threat fatigue»), marketing («advertainment»), business («dotcom-uppance»), and angst («niche worrying»). Thanks to the Internet, new words are being coined and disseminated at lightning speed, and McFedries proves to be a knowledgeable guide to the «neological frenzy.» Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
«Essential reading for the lexicurious—Word Spy explains not just the newest words but the newest ideas.»
-Erin McKean, lexicographer and author of Weird and Wonderful Words
«Paul McFedrie’s obvious passion for tracking down cutting-edge expressions had led to a fascinating linguistic commentary for those of us who ought to know a ‘leather spinster’ from a ‘weddingmoon.’ He opens the reader’s eyes and ears to a new language that continues to emerge.»
-Jeffrey Kacirk, author of Forgotten English and The Word Museum.
«
Word Spy is a triumph—a joyful romp through language and lingo of our times. Today’s readers will love it. Tomorrow’s readers will need it. So here’s a message to the archaeologists of the future: Please dust off this book and read every page. It is your starting point for deciphering what life was like in the 21st century.»
— Daniel H. Pink, author of Free Agent Nation
«Tired of finding dead words embalmed in dusty dictionaries?
Word Spy is one of those rare books that captures words live in the wild, complete with up-to-the minute citations and examples of usage. Glurge, metrosexual, toxic bachelor, bozo explosion, flash mob, weapons of mass distraction—they are all here, complete with origin, usage, and great quotations. Like Eric Raymond’s New Hacker’s Dictionary, Word Spy is living proof that to invent a language is to invent a way of life.»
— Richard Dooling, author of White Man’s Grave
- Publication date
-
2004
- Topics
- Englisch, .., English language — New words, English language — Terms and phrases, Civilization, Modern — Terminology, Language and culture, Vocabulary, Anglais (Langue) — Néologismes, Anglais (Langue) — Mots et locutions, Civilisation moderne et contemporaine — Terminologie, Langage et culture, Civilization, Modern, Sprachpolitik, Neologismus, Gesellschaft, Kultur, Nachindustrielle Gesellschaft, Phraseologie, Slang, Englisch
- Publisher
- New York : Broadway Books
- Collection
- inlibrary; printdisabled; internetarchivebooks
- Digitizing sponsor
- The Arcadia Fund
- Contributor
- Internet Archive
- Language
- English
xi, 419 pages ; 21 cm
Looks at the profusion of new words that have come into the English language, presenting a view of the cultural and social implications of language developments in the fields of business, technology, multiculturalism, fast foods, relationships, and current affairs
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‘Tohby knits well but is also a chatterbox, so his socks are not finished. I hope he finishes them in the holidays.’
Many years have passed since this mixed primary school report on Tohby Riddle. And although his socks remain unfinished, he has been able to complete other undertakings, including a degree in art and a degree in architecture — neither of which involved any knitting.
Tohby Riddle is the award-winning creator of picture books such as The Singing Hat, The Great Escape from City Zoo and Irving the Magician (all three were shortlisted for CBC Picture Book of the Year and more), and the cult favourite, The Royal Guest. He has also written a novel for young adults, The Lucky Ones.
Tohby illustrated The Word Spy and The Return of the Word Spy written by Ursula Duborsarsky, the first of which won the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature in the 2009 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and was an honour book in the 2009 CBC Book of the Year awards. He has an ongoing love of words, images and visual information, which has also resulted in the highly successful book about grammar, The Greatest Gatsby.
Tohby lives with his wife and three children in Katoomba, Blue Mountains, Australia.
One day while wandering the aisles of the children’s library with my boys I came across a book entitled The Word Spy. It caught my attention on so many levels – I snatched it up and started reading through it. It’s beautifully written, captivating and downright funny. Despite my children’s young ages at the time, I brought the book home and we started reading through it.
We didn’t finish the book before it was due back at the library. Rather than renew it I returned it and sought out my own copy. It took a while because I found it’s sequel at the used book store and was determined to find the first there as well. As it turns out I didn’t, I bought on special at a very small very local book shop instead. But that’s not really what I wanted to share with you. The book is an absolute treasure.
How We Use The Word Spy:
I like to break this book down into bite-sized bits that make my kids beg for more. Each chapter has many different themes or topics covered within it. I like to read only one of those topics each time we sit down. Why? Because less is more, especially when it comes to insanely crazy or heavy topics like grammar.
My kids remember, quite easily, what a palindrome or a Tom Swiftie is when they only learn one of those items each day instead of trying to comprehend them all at once. They are eager to speak in Pig Latin or discuss Malapropisms over dinner because it’s still new and curious to them. Plus, I’m going to be honest with you if we could all teach the way The Word Spy writes, our children wouldn’t ever want to graduate!
Each morning we all sit down at our learning table and have what we’ve dubbed as “our morning together block”. We sing the hymn of the month, use our memory box, read the scriptures of the day, and then I pull out The Word Spy. My kids enjoy all of these things, but there’s often the most excitement over this book!
Grammar has always been pretty simple in our home but this book is what helps keep it that way! My children learned about punctuation, plurals, how the alphabet came to be, clichés, tongue twisters, portmanteau words and so much more. There were never tears over it, unless you count the day I was using Spoonerisms and one of my boys just couldn’t seem to make up his own and became distressed.
I choose not to add anything to this. No notebooking pages, all though I did consider it, no matching workbook pages, no demands for a three paragraph containing anything we’ve learned written with a pen name, nothing. Although I did debate an end of book test.. We keep this oh so simple and I think that’s what really makes this book so amazingly fun and engaging. My kids simply cannot get enough of it. They beg for me to read more & are always annoyed when I say, “Oh, not today guys!”
The Word Spy has written her book in such a fun and engaging way we find ourselves giggling, googling and researching at times for more information. Then there’s the codes she ends each and every chapter of the book with. I mean, after all, you can’t be a spy without making use of it, right? Here’s the catch, my kids think they are just cracking codes, but Mamma knows they are really utilizing a few things they’ve learned from the current chapter! Ahh, yes, that Ursula Dubosarsky is one tricky Word Spy!
What I love about The Word Spy:
My kids adore The Word Spy! So much so that when we finished it they sat there quietly for a minute before screaming, “You have the next one, right?” Yes, my cheeky little boys I do indeed.
Our home evaluator {home education process in Tasmania} asked me about the book as she’d never heard of it before. She fell in love and asked me, on the spot, to give her a, “three sentence quip I can use in the upcoming newsletter as to why this book is good!”
This book is written to kids, for kids and we adults are just lucky enough to be able to sneak a bit of it in from time to time! Seriously, this author doesn’t dumb things down, but she explains things and speaks to you so you really get what she’s saying. How many kids beg for more from their grammar book?
The price is perfect! At our local little book shop I paid $17. That was for a grammar book for my children for an entire year of school! You can also purchase this book through Book Depository, although it’s currently out of stock. You can also get it through Amazon for $12 or for your Kindle for $14. {Please note that if purchased as The Word Spy you will most certainly have an Australian and British theme to the book; If purchased through Amazon you need to search for The Word Snoop; The Book Depository has The Word Snoop in stock, but it will not have the British/Australian slant/spellings, etc.}
We’ve yet to leave this book laying around and not find someone picking it up and reading it. From teenage nieces to grown adults. It really is that addictive!
The Word Spy even has her own nifty blog where children can ask her questions and she’ll answer them!
What We Don’t Love:
You know, the only downside to this book is that our favourite international book seller, Book Depository, is currently out of stock. And let’s be honest, that’s not exactly the fault of the author or the book!
Bottom Line:
The Word Spy is amazing and any book that makes my kids excited and chatty about grammar is top notch in our home!
You might also like:
- The Picture Book Homeschool
- Simply Grammar
- English 2600 High School Grammar Course
If you want to see more of the craziness Kendra and her family got up to with The Word Spy, from leaving pig latin messages at the front door to attempting to play with Palindromes, check out their blog.
-originally published April 2013
Kendra lives in Tasmania Australia with her husband, the Man From Down Under, her two curious boys, a dog that thinks he’s human, a guinea pig that won’t stop squeaking, & a bird learning to talk back. She’s a second generation home educator. She loves using methods from Unit Studies to Boxed Curriculum and everything in between to help feed the curious minds of her two, ever growing, boys. Creator, and avid user, of the Homeschooling Book of Days & The Nature Game. She can be found retelling tales from The Land Down Under over at the Aussie Pumpkin Patch.
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Catalogue Persistent Identifier
https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn5151739
APA Citation
Dubosarsky, Ursula. & Riddle, Tohby. (2012). The word spy : activity book. Camberwell, Vic : Penguin Books
MLA Citation
Dubosarsky, Ursula. and Riddle, Tohby. The word spy : activity book / Ursula Dubosarsky ; illustrated by Tohby Riddle Penguin Books Camberwell, Vic 2012
Australian/Harvard Citation
Dubosarsky, Ursula. & Riddle, Tohby. 2012, The word spy : activity book / Ursula Dubosarsky ; illustrated by Tohby Riddle Penguin Books Camberwell, Vic
Wikipedia Citation
{{Citation
| title=The word spy : activity book / Ursula Dubosarsky ; illustrated by Tohby Riddle
| author1=Dubosarsky, Ursula, 1961-
| author2=Riddle, Tohby
| year=2012
| publisher=Penguin Books
| language=English
}}