Words: A Visual Sight Word Book to Spark Imagination and Reading for Kids

by Christoph Niemann

What can you do with a word? Read it, spell it, say it, picture it, understand it, make a sentence with it, tell a story with it, share it with a friend. Everything starts with a love of words! More than 300 words inspired by Dr. Edward Fry’s list of sight words are paired with striking and playful illustrations by internationally renowned designer and artist Christoph Niemann to deepen understanding, to enrich, and to enlighten those learning to read and write English, whether they be children or adults. This compilation of more than 300 words and pictures encourages reading, fuels the imagination, and offers hours of decoding fun. Christoph Niemann has illustrated each word with a picture that challenges readers to make connections and puzzle out meaning in a playful way. Homophones, basic punctuation, and an assortment of silly and unusual words are also included to delineate the eighteen sections of the book. Browse the pages to discover words you don’t know (or find a new facet of the ones you do)! Create your own stories or poems by combining words, images, and ideas. Can you think of other words to describe the images, or new drawings to interpret the words? Cover a word with your finger and ask a friend to guess it just by looking at the picture. Or pick a word and draw (or write) what you think happens next. . . . This is an excellent, original, and exuberant teaching tool for parents as well as elementary school teachers, and it will also be useful for ESL programs. Includes an introduction and an index.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Nonfiction, Language, Art, Teaching

352 pages, Hardcover

Published October 4, 2016

Reviews

[Hilda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best primary books I've ever read! I recommend this book to every new parent. Students in preschool, kinder, ELL, or any other grade! I'm the third grade ELD (English Language Development) teacher at my school and I'm thinking of buying a class copy for my ELL students to read. I don't want to give mine up! I know the target audience is younger children but one of the hardest things for me to teach is sight words. My ELL students can read them but have no knowledge of what the word actually means. Sight words are especially hard to teach if the kids come to me with no prior language. How do I illustrate almost or often ? There are just not good enough pictures to accompany these words. This book! This magically book did just that!!! It's inspired by Dr. Edward Fry's list of sight words, the same words I use daily in my classroom. The same words that are extremely hard to show or illustrate and it made it work! Thank you Christoph Niemann!!! You genius you!!

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun book! I am a few decades older than the intended audience for this one, but I had to say, it's a really cool little book for young readers and for even littler book lovers who are developing their pre-literacy skills. Christoph Niemann draws adorable figures that correspond to the idea of each of the more than 300 words in the book, helping readers make a connection between the printed text and the concepts of them.

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not everyday you encounter a book could serve a really wide variety of readers in such an engaging way. I think for really young readers, it's just a picture book like Seasons. There's one word on each page (usually) and a simple illustration. Some are funny, some work with the word on the following page to create a little narrative. But where I think this book could be really great is with older kids learning to read. There are a lot of words that are really hard to explain (as, each, and of are three good examples from the book). This book gives context for those words and explains them visually in a little story that can be explored alone or with someone reading with them. You could also do an extension activity where you make your own version of this book. If you do it in a classroom setting, every student could be responsible for a few words. You could even do it as a group where once a week or so you pick a word to brainstorm and illustrate as a group, and at the end of the year you would have a book! So many possibilities! Sadly it's a little too involved/individually oriented to work as a library program, but that won't stop me from pushing it on other people!

[Rodney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advance copy of this at the bookstore where I work (Nightbird Books, Fayetteville Arkansas). When I saw this in the white box, I couldn't wait to get home and read it to my three-year-old.

This is by far the best word primer I've ever seen. Whereas most will have a picture of, say, an apple with the word "apple" below it, this one has a more complicated, abstract relationship between word and image. For instance: a man stands with a rake and a bag of leaves. He's raked up every leaf, except for one straggler far in the distance. The caption is, "almost."

Every picture engenders conversation. I can just see my daughter's brain working as she tries to verbalize the meaning of the picture using the word that captions it. What a wonderful book. Highly recommended for all parents of young children.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this on display while working the Children's department at work and had to give it a look.

Not only does this book provide endless words to teach young children, but it also shows how words in the English language can be a bit tricky when they are spelled the same way but mean different things and in different context. I also love the play in words and how several pages can be a running thought while also showcasing the word at the same time.

The illustrations are easy to understand while being whimsical at the same time.

This book is not just for the young reader, but also experienced readers. Can you remember the last time you used the following words:

Brobdingnagian, scintilla, somnambulist, or even woebegone.

A fun way to learn words and also discuss what they mean, I recommend this book to just about anyone who loves words and word play.

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book for kids and also not kids. It takes three hundred common words and illustrates them in interesting and thought provoking ways. Some of them I am still not sure I see the connection to the word through yet. It's one of those books that is great to share because it provokes good discussion about what words mean, particularly when he uses one word and illustrates it in two or three different ways to show the changes in usage. It's not your average A is for apple, B is for ball, book, and it's all the better for it. Plus, if I had kids, I'd totally let them colour these illustrations in. I shall wait for grand children.

[Dianne J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure this would grab the attention of the target audience; ages 4-8. Must be read with an adult handy for explanations. For example page 138 "might," and page 144 "luck." Some words to pictures had me stumped, page 166 "and?" Pages 214-215 still have me perplexed and I'm an educated grown person!

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a picture book, but one that's very chunky.

The illustrations are all black and white -- they look like they're drawn with a black sharpie, with some parts colored in with that sharpie.

My favorite parts are when the same word is listed on 2 consecutive pages, showing that the same word can have 2 very different meanings.

[Natasja · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books is great! The illustrations are fun but I like that they're not always obvious, so my kid still has to read the word, rather than guess it. We use this book for reading and then he'll write out the ones he likes. Great book for emerging readers and writers!

~ From this savvy librarian

[Chris Hays · Rating 4 out of 5]

I great book to show ways of seeing and thinking about language. This was requested by the art teacher and it was an amazing purchase for teachers of ELL students too. Using this with literary language.

[Elvira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this, just wish it wasn't so big and heavy for small hands.

[Leslie Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful vocabulary builder and reader for children! My daughter has loved it from a young age and she’s 5 now.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easily readable in one sitting, a great book for kids. Niemann offers a different perspective on the meaning of words through his illustrations. A very clever book.

[Eliot Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cool book, more than 300 different words to explore, all set to simple and creative illustrations that help define them.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvelous book. it would be a perfect textbook for icon design. I drew along with it while reading.

[Gary Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gift. With added footnotes to highlight certain words. Fun. She made it an unbelievable gift.
Words. Are just that.

Words.

You're loved. Thank you.

[Anne with Violets · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love seeing words and pictures that follow the writer's stream of consciousness. You could even give a child a scene and ask them to write a story.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

so creative and funny, great book for sight words

[Bill Peel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christoph Niemann never ceases to amaze me. He is not only one of the finest graphic artists on the planet, but is also a creative genius. I could study this book for hours and never tire of the iconic drawings and innovative concepts. It’ll have a prominent spot beside a favorite reading chair for frequent perusing and persistent inspiration.

[margothere · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I love about this book is that it asks for shared reading, discussion. I love the clean lines and concepts. But I think it's a little esoteric. I'm still deciding if it's for everyone. That said, I'd like my own copy and see how it goes with different kids.

[sarah brihan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love for vocabulary instruction!

[Abi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This seems like a brilliant way to learn to read.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clever, playful, delightfully nuanced compilation.

[Mary Beth]

a surprisingly fun coincidence as I was studying symbols

[CharityJ]

On the surface this is a concept book about words. Each page features a different word simple words, homographs, big words. What takes this from being a simple concept book is Niemann's stellar black/white illustrations and his interpretations of the words. Love the parts of speech section at end. Niemann's work is stark and simple, yet conveys so much in simple lines. Worth a look for the illustrations.

[Mr. George The Librarian]

My SLP wife loves this book!