The Dictionary Story
Sam Winston and Oliver Jeffers
Walker Books

A little dictionary’s realisation that she’s merely a list of definitions whereas the other books lined up beside her on the shelf contain stories, makes her decide that things must change: she resolves to ‘bring her words to life’. Thereupon an alligator of the hungry kind makes an appearance by opening the definitions enclosing him and proceeds to the D pages from where a delicious smell emanates in the form of a doughnut (donut is used here). The tasty confection sees him coming and rather than being consumed rolls off, accidentally right into Ghost – make that through him – and wakes the apparition. Donut continues on its way hotly pursued by Alligator, to the moon. As said moon starts interrogating the two, Ghost appears scaring the moonlight out of them all and prompting Alligator and Donut to rush off until midway through the dictionary the former catches up, only to collide with the Queen who ends up flat on her derriere.

Where will this all end, you might be wondering. Let’s just say total chaos ensues mainly due to the appearance of a tornado, spilled ink, a Viking, an umbrella and more.

In order to restore some semblance of order to the situation and the dismayed dictionary, she calls upon the help of her friend Alphabet whose song solves everything leaving all the words back in their proper places at last. PHEW!

Make sure you read all the tiny print on the dictionary pages ; those definitions are frequently hilarious and very clever, seemingly serving as a stage upon which the alphabetic characters perform. The definition of marmalade for instance is ‘A sort of jam made from citrus fruit, usually oranges. Marmalade is perhaps the main reason that the universe came into existence.’ Vacuum cleaner is defined thus, “An electrical machine that is used to clean floors by sucking up dust and dirt. It’s great at cleaning the house, but you’d best leave the dishes to something else.’

Sam Winston’s comic pacing of the tale – a meta celebration of words – is superb. Superb too are Oliver Jeffers’s naive style illustrations showing the shenanigans of the characters. Totally immersive and brilliantly created right from the real dictionary shown at the front of the book. The more you read it the more delights you will discover, it’s a veritable wordy wonder.