Synopses & Reviews
'\'\\\'\\\\\\\'\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'The New York Review Children\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Collection began in 2003 in an attempt to reward readers who have long wished for the return of their favorite titles and to introduce those books to a new generation of readers. The line publishes picture books for preschoolers through to chapter books and novels for older children. Praised for their elegant design and sturdy bindings, these books set a new standard for the definition of a \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"classic.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"
Among the 40 titles included in this collection you will find Wee Gillis, a Caldecott Honor Book by the creators of The Story of Ferdinand; Esther Averill\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s time-honored Jenny and the Cat Club series; The House of Arden by E. Nesbit, one of J.K. Rowling\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s favorite writers; several titles by the award-winning team of Ingri and Edgar Parin d\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'Aulaire, including their Book of Norse Myths and Book of Animals; James Thurber\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s The Thirteen Clocks and The Wonderful O, both with illustrations by Marc Simont. Not to be missed is the classic animal adventure story Bel Ria by Sheila Burnford, the author of The Incredible Journey; Lucretia Hale\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s hilarious The Peterkin Papers; James Cloyd Bowman\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Newbery Honor Book, Pecos Bill; and holiday favorites by John Masefield, The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'\\\\\\\'\\\'\''
Synopsis
What can words be, or rather, what cant they be? Poet Alastair Reid introduces children and adults to the wondrous waywardness of words in Ounce Dice Trice, a delicious confection and a wildly unexpected exploration of sound and sense and nonsense that is like nothing else. Reid offers light words (willow, whirr, spinnaker) and heavy words (galoshes, mugwump, crumb), words on the move and odd words, words that read both ways and words that read the wrong way around (rezagrats), along with much else. Accompanied by Ben Shahns glorious drawings, Ounce Dice Trice is a book of endless delights, not to mention the only place where you can find the answer to the question: What is a gongoozler? Well, all I can say is quoz.
About the Author
Alastair Reid is a poet, translator, essayist, and scholar of Latin American literature. He had been on the staff of
The New Yorker since 1959 and has translated works by Pablo Neruda and Jorge Luis Borges. Among his many books for children are
A Balloon for a Blunderbuss, I Keep Changing, and
Millionaires (all illustrated by Bob Gill), and
Supposing (illustrated by Abe Birnbaum). In 2008 he published two career-spanning collections of work,
Inside Out: Selected Poetry and Translations and
Outside In: Selected Prose.Ben Shahn (1898–1969) was a painter, muralist, print-maker, and illustrator. He was best known for his socially and politically informed artwork, including a famous series of paintings depicting the trial of the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. His 1956 Charles Eliot Norton lectures were collected and published as The Shape of Content, and he illustrated numerous books of poetry. Ounce Dice Trice is the only book he illustrated that was written specifically for children.