My favourite subject at school
Was always English
I love to read
I love to write
I love learning how language works
I love exploring etymology
I love working with words
Playing with words
And it makes me so proud
That my children do too
Especially William
Who loves history and
Making connections
And thrives on facts & figures
We both have a love of
All things lexical

Today I am sharing
Every Word Tells A Story
By Tom Read Wilson and
Word Perfect by Susie Dent

The children have lots of
Daily Reads
I wanted something for me
Word Perfect offers
A word a day
It is a linguistic almanac
Filled with facts, stories and
Surprising etymologies
Tied to every day of the year
I am thoroughly enjoying it
And sharing snippets
With the children

Together with my little bookworms
I have been reading
Every Word Tells A Story
An extraordinary A to Z
Of etymological exploration

We are LOVING this book!
We have already learned so much

For each letter of the alphabet
There are four words
One is introduced with a poem
The others come with facts
Origin stories and historical context
All the words are gloriously illustrated
By Ian Morris
This is a brilliant and beautiful book

Did you know that aardvark
Means earth pig

Anemone means
Daughter of the wind

Did you know that Hex
Which means casting a spell
Came from the old German word
For witch

Did you know that map is
An abbreviation of mappa mundi
Latin for the napkin of the world
I LOVE this fact!

And squirrel means Skia Oura
Shadow Tail

William has loved exploring this book
It has cemented for him the desire
To study classics and ancient civilisations
He loves learning how words have their roots
In Ancient Greek and Latin
This has definitely fired him
And I up
To learn more about the links
Between different languages
Through different time periods

This is a fun and fascinating
Deep dive into language
It illustrates that every words
Does indeed a have a story to tell

We need to add more books like this
To our shelves
I REALLY want to read Tom’s book
For grown ups
And also more books by
Susie Dent

Every Word Tells A Story
Is a rich resource for homes
For classrooms and libraries
It is also an absolute joy
To explore together as a family
A home educators dream
As it can inspire so many
Different projects and investigations
Into the stories and journeys of words

Brilliant book and perfect for
National Storytelling Week