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C D B!
N-R-E S N T-S.
N-Q = Thank you.
S M-T = It's empty.
D N S 5 X = The hen has five eggs.
It looks like a secret code, but read the letters aloud and solve the puzzle!
N-Q = Thank you.
S M-T = It's empty.
D N S 5 X = The hen has five eggs.
It looks like a secret code, but read the letters aloud and solve the puzzle!
48 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
4 people are currently reading
379 people want to read
About the author
William Steig
129 books424 followersWilliam Steig was born in New York City in 1907. In a family where every member was involved in the arts, it was not surprising that Steig became an artist.
He published his first children's book, Roland the Minstrel Pig, in 1968, embarking on a new and very different career.
Steig's books reflect his conviction that children want the security of a devoted family and friends. When Sylvester, Farmer Palmer, Abel, Pearl, Gorky, Solomon, and Irene eventually get home, their families are all waiting, and beginning with Amos & Boris, friendship is celebrated in story after story.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/willia...
He published his first children's book, Roland the Minstrel Pig, in 1968, embarking on a new and very different career.
Steig's books reflect his conviction that children want the security of a devoted family and friends. When Sylvester, Farmer Palmer, Abel, Pearl, Gorky, Solomon, and Irene eventually get home, their families are all waiting, and beginning with Amos & Boris, friendship is celebrated in story after story.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/willia...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews
June 11, 2015
When I was a kid, my aunt would draw us a pictogram riddle that looked something like this, only hand drawn:
C M >-O========== >-O=========== ?
M R (picture of a knot) >-O========= >-O========.
O, S M R!
M R (picture of a knot) >-O========== >-O==========!
O, S M R! C M E-D B-D iiiiii?
O! S! M R >-O========== >-O==========
C M (badly drawn dogs)(I am NOT going to ascii a dog, people)
M R (picture of a knot)(badly drawn dogs)
O, S M R!
M R(picture of a knot)(badly drawn dogs)
O, S M R! C M P-N?
O! S! M R(badly drawn dogs)
We had to guess what these said. And even after we knew because we made her do this riddle for us hundreds of times, we still found it amusing and delightful. We made her read them aloud because she was so funny and dramatic in her translation of these dubious codes.
Many years later, I was sitting at my desk, cataloging childrens books (since that used to be my job) and CDB came into my hands.
That childhood delight? Blown up to gigantic proportion! There was an entire BOOK of these delightful riddles and none of them involved terribly-drawn animals!
Also, I was bitter that this was not one of the books I'd had in childhood. I was so neglected and unloved!
My favorite is I M C-N A G-P-C and I quote that as often as humanly possible (not very often, seeing as how there is a dearth of G-P-C people in my environment)
(In case you are wondering, >-O========= is a snake)
(Also, in case it still doesn't make any sense, it says:
See them snakes?
Them are not snakes.
Oh, yes them are!
Them are not snakes!
Oh, yes them are! See them itty bitty eyes?
Oh! Yes! Them ARE snakes!)
C M >-O========== >-O=========== ?
M R (picture of a knot) >-O========= >-O========.
O, S M R!
M R (picture of a knot) >-O========== >-O==========!
O, S M R! C M E-D B-D iiiiii?
O! S! M R >-O========== >-O==========
C M (badly drawn dogs)(I am NOT going to ascii a dog, people)
M R (picture of a knot)(badly drawn dogs)
O, S M R!
M R(picture of a knot)(badly drawn dogs)
O, S M R! C M P-N?
O! S! M R(badly drawn dogs)
We had to guess what these said. And even after we knew because we made her do this riddle for us hundreds of times, we still found it amusing and delightful. We made her read them aloud because she was so funny and dramatic in her translation of these dubious codes.
Many years later, I was sitting at my desk, cataloging childrens books (since that used to be my job) and CDB came into my hands.
That childhood delight? Blown up to gigantic proportion! There was an entire BOOK of these delightful riddles and none of them involved terribly-drawn animals!
Also, I was bitter that this was not one of the books I'd had in childhood. I was so neglected and unloved!
My favorite is I M C-N A G-P-C and I quote that as often as humanly possible (not very often, seeing as how there is a dearth of G-P-C people in my environment)
(In case you are wondering, >-O========= is a snake)
(Also, in case it still doesn't make any sense, it says:
See them snakes?
Them are not snakes.
Oh, yes them are!
Them are not snakes!
Oh, yes them are! See them itty bitty eyes?
Oh! Yes! Them ARE snakes!)
August 26, 2019
Wow, this was 1968 before the texting craze came to be and we actually use stuff like this. This started to give me a headache as there are some difficult puzzles in this book.
Steig is using Letters and numbers to make simple sentences and most of them I could figure out and some I could not. The pictures do help. C D B is see the bee. That’s how the book works. I got to the end and saw there was a translation and I figured out the ones I didn’t get. I think I figured out about 70% of them. I missed L-X-& R which is Alexander. Some things make more sense to me than others. Still, it’s a puzzle book and I enjoy puzzles. The artwork is the style of William Steig.
The kids thought this was fun. They too were trying to guess what it was saying. The niece was pretty good and the nephew did good too. He knows his letters. Still, some of them are not as obvious as others. The niece thought this was fun and she gave it 4 stars. The nephew was at least not bored by this and he gave it 3 stars.
Steig is using Letters and numbers to make simple sentences and most of them I could figure out and some I could not. The pictures do help. C D B is see the bee. That’s how the book works. I got to the end and saw there was a translation and I figured out the ones I didn’t get. I think I figured out about 70% of them. I missed L-X-& R which is Alexander. Some things make more sense to me than others. Still, it’s a puzzle book and I enjoy puzzles. The artwork is the style of William Steig.
The kids thought this was fun. They too were trying to guess what it was saying. The niece was pretty good and the nephew did good too. He knows his letters. Still, some of them are not as obvious as others. The niece thought this was fun and she gave it 4 stars. The nephew was at least not bored by this and he gave it 3 stars.
February 12, 2008
C D B!
S, I C D B. S A B-Z B.
that has stuck with me since i was young. some pages are bit more awkward but the idea of the book is so much fun. and there is no life lesson- just an appreciation for language.
August 3, 2018
Why bother using your words when you can save time and just use your letters?
This is cute, but it gets old pretty fast.
This is cute, but it gets old pretty fast.
Read
January 25, 2022I C D B !
December 6, 2020
This is a clever, weird book that does not age well.
As you probably know, the entire book is a series of puzzles composed of letters and numbers. For example, CDB!= See the bee! Some of the puzzles are tricky, especially since common phrases and pronunciations have shifted a little since the late '60s, when this was published.
Speaking as an adult who is pretty good at puzzles, a lot of these took some thinking, and there is no answer key to help you out.
Also, some of the cultural depictions are not great. They are not as bad as If I Ran the Zoo, but iffy enough that I would not feel great about using this book with children. The more time I spend as a teacher, the more I learn that children are highly susceptible to racial stereotypes.
Between the difficulty and datedness of the puzzles and the cultural depictions, I am unlikely to use this book with my own children or anyone else's.
Interestingly, I read this book because it was included as a supplemental book for the Great Minds Wit & Wisdom curriculum for Grade 5. It's wild to me that a curriculum that wishes to be taken seriously would direct people to this book.
As you probably know, the entire book is a series of puzzles composed of letters and numbers. For example, CDB!= See the bee! Some of the puzzles are tricky, especially since common phrases and pronunciations have shifted a little since the late '60s, when this was published.
Speaking as an adult who is pretty good at puzzles, a lot of these took some thinking, and there is no answer key to help you out.
Also, some of the cultural depictions are not great. They are not as bad as If I Ran the Zoo, but iffy enough that I would not feel great about using this book with children. The more time I spend as a teacher, the more I learn that children are highly susceptible to racial stereotypes.
Between the difficulty and datedness of the puzzles and the cultural depictions, I am unlikely to use this book with my own children or anyone else's.
Interestingly, I read this book because it was included as a supplemental book for the Great Minds Wit & Wisdom curriculum for Grade 5. It's wild to me that a curriculum that wishes to be taken seriously would direct people to this book.
October 8, 2012
This is the most awesome book for kids in the world. I remember this book like it was yesterday. Making the sounds and trying to figure out which words they were trying to mean. When I got each one I was simply enthralled. I would do the happy dance all through the halls into the kitchen to show my Mom that I had succeeded. I was a happy girl. In a sense I was reading, even though I was too young to read at the time. Even now, I remember how happy this book made me.
As an example, the books name CDB comes with a picture of a large bee and a flower - meaning
S e e t h e B e e
When I recognized that I was ecstatic. I was over the moon. To this day those three letters in succession will make me smile. I think all parents should get their kids this book. Make their brains work hard for rewards, instead of having everything presented to them on a silver platter in multimedia. How else will their brains grow if you don't?
CDB is one of my all time favorite childrens books and I absolutely love it.
As an example, the books name CDB comes with a picture of a large bee and a flower - meaning
S e e t h e B e e
When I recognized that I was ecstatic. I was over the moon. To this day those three letters in succession will make me smile. I think all parents should get their kids this book. Make their brains work hard for rewards, instead of having everything presented to them on a silver platter in multimedia. How else will their brains grow if you don't?
CDB is one of my all time favorite childrens books and I absolutely love it.
April 7, 2011
"CDB" is such a creative book, that definitely triggers a child's thinking! I would definitely implement this book for inventive spelling, or to act as a stress reliever. I think you could do several fun activities with this, which would ultimately help children with the breakdown of their spelling. I think it'd be fun to have children create their own book, and then they could share it with the class to have them guess the meanings. You can try implement books with illustrations to help; however, you can also implement books without illustrations. I think this book would work for all ages, since it does trigger higher-level thinking.
July 18, 2009
Another delightful book by William Steig! I enjoyed sharing this one with my students, and I've kept a personal copy of it after all these years. Figuring some of the words out reminds me of deciphering some car license plates. The delight in figuring some of them out put a smile on my face! I hadn't picked this book up in several years, so a few of them took me a few seconds to figure out! Didn't mind, though--that much longer to enjoy! The illustrations are fun, and there's a key to the letter-sentences in the back of the book.
April 8, 2011
This is a really clever book because the sentences are not really sentences, they are simply letters that make sentences. I would use this book with older elementary students because they would be more likely to make sense of how the book is read. Students will have to access prior knowledge and look at the pictures in the book to figure out what sentence the letters are trying to convey. This would be a good book to read before doing a lesson on letter combinations and/or decoding.
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July 13, 2013This is a fun one to read, it has the children (and adults in some cases) guessing what these letters might mean. It is a great one to read aloud to the classroom and have them sound out the letters. You could pick one child to come up and read one page to the class and have him pick on another friend to help him if he doesn't know what it means.
August 4, 2018
This is an inventive picture book unlike any other, something one can say about any Steig book. The word puzzles vary in difficulty, and the hardest probably will stump younger readers. The one featured on the cover is an example of one of the easiest. Solutions for all are included at the end.
July 20, 2020
Fun for the family or class who want to try to puzzle out what is being said by a few letters.
May 28, 2025
Genuinely hurts my head to read, brilliantly done. Gonna force English learners to read it.
July 22, 2019
It's dated, but I don't even care. A more delightful picture book is hard to find.
April 28, 2010
Decades before text messaging on cell phones was ever introduced to kids around the world, author William Steig gave us CDB!, the book of textesque (to coin a phrase) letter puzzles designed to stir the mind and excercise the intellect. Some of the puzzles in the book are fairly simple, requiring only a speedy read-through to figure out the meaning, but others are quite difficult, necessitating the use of mental free association powers to discern the proper pronunciations that lead to the right answer.
William Steig has a real knack for this kind of thing, and I really consider CDB! to be an important contribution to the field of literature for young readers, especially as pertains to the subfield of children's puzzle books. Readers can have as much fun with this book as they did when it was first published, and CDB! seems to be the type of book that could hold the attention of kids for a while, perhaps making it ideal for long car or plane trips. I would give two and a half stars to CDB!
William Steig has a real knack for this kind of thing, and I really consider CDB! to be an important contribution to the field of literature for young readers, especially as pertains to the subfield of children's puzzle books. Readers can have as much fun with this book as they did when it was first published, and CDB! seems to be the type of book that could hold the attention of kids for a while, perhaps making it ideal for long car or plane trips. I would give two and a half stars to CDB!
August 12, 2016
This has been on my to-read list for a long while -- and it looks like I didn't wait long enough... Bea did not get it -- just kept saying this book is weird and why did it have to be so long.
I thought it was a pretty clever idea - some were really pretty hard. Good for an older kid that likes to puzzle things out and likes word play stuff I'd expect. That is just not my kid.
I always love his illustrations though.
I thought it was a pretty clever idea - some were really pretty hard. Good for an older kid that likes to puzzle things out and likes word play stuff I'd expect. That is just not my kid.
I always love his illustrations though.
May 30, 2017
This is a clever book! You have to figure out what phrase is being said with just letters and numbers. CDB = See the bee? The pictures help a lot.
I put this under the document camera so my class could play along. They loved it. Some were really quick at it, but others never understood what was going on. It's a great puzzle book for helping students grow their intelligence. It really makes you think in a different way. It's fun.
I put this under the document camera so my class could play along. They loved it. Some were really quick at it, but others never understood what was going on. It's a great puzzle book for helping students grow their intelligence. It really makes you think in a different way. It's fun.
October 26, 2019
A family favorite. We still speak CDB at my house. The sweet drawings are hilarious.
My personal favorite is "Y R U Y-N-N?" (Why are you whining?)
This will forever make me think of my Uncle Les.
My family was quite pleased with our discovering how to say, "Thank you for the hospitality!" in CDB: "N-Q 4 D S-P-T-L-E-T!"
Les would have loved that. Thanks, William Steig.
My personal favorite is "Y R U Y-N-N?" (Why are you whining?)
This will forever make me think of my Uncle Les.
My family was quite pleased with our discovering how to say, "Thank you for the hospitality!" in CDB: "N-Q 4 D S-P-T-L-E-T!"
Les would have loved that. Thanks, William Steig.
May 8, 2017
My mom was obsessed with this book when I was younger. We used to crack up as she read it aloud. SO incredibly clever and enjoyable. One of my all time favorites. Love the simple illustrations. Was so excited to find a copy to share with my son.
May 29, 2018
Interesting concept. I had a slight headache before reading this so trying to figure out some of the sentences did not help. It would be a fun book to read with a child learning his/her/their letters.
February 1, 2009
Phonetics = fun
June 28, 2013
An old favorite. Imagine my surprise when I realized he also created Shrek!
June 16, 2017
Funny little word puzzles. Some were 2 hard!!!!
May 11, 2018
I used to use these as puzzles for the class to solve when I was doing substitute teaching.
Fun at the end of the day for them to guess and even make up their own!
Fun at the end of the day for them to guess and even make up their own!
June 27, 2018
Stinking clever
October 9, 2018
Incredible! Perfect for an alphabet Storytime.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews