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Best Little Word Book Ever
Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, and Goldbug guide children on a point-and-learn journey through the words around them.
24 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
68 people are currently reading
511 people want to read
About the author
Richard Scarry
1,311 books514 followersRICHARD SCARRY is one of the world's best-loved children's authors EVER! In his extraordinary career, Scarry illustrated over 150 books, many of which have never been out of print. His books have sold over 100 million copies around the world, and are currently published in over twenty languages. No other illustrator has shown such a lively interest in the words and concepts of early childhood. Richard Scarry was posthumously awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Illustrators in 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
May 26, 2019
Now when I realise that Best Little Word Book Ever was originally published in 1978, I (personally) do find it positive and for the 1970s still rather rare and avant-garde that in the as main characters featured Cat family, author and illustrator Richard Scarry also has the father doing his share of the housework, that for example, while Mother Cat is cooking, Father Cat is equally present in the kitchen washing dishes (with all family members later helping with shopping for groceries at the supermarket).
But that having all been said and albeit that I have indeed found Best Little Word Book Ever a generally interesting and informative (read successful) enough general introduction to the Cat family, to their clothing, their house, their day-to-day lives and yes that Best Little Word Book Ever also is and represents most definitely a very much useful and engagingly fun learning and teaching tool for basic English vocabulary recognition and language usage practice (and like usual, Richard Scarry's accompanying illustrations are of course descriptive, bright, cheerful and as such in my opinion also perfect for many if not most young children's eyes and visual tastes), I do (personally and in my opinion) also consider the sections of Best Little Word Book Ever that come after the Cat family's shopping excursion quite annoyingly unrelated to the members of the family in and of themselves. For while the details and the described, featured vocabulary words with regard to farming, the airport and the harbour are of course interesting and informative, considering that Best Little Word Book Ever basically does generally present the Cat family as its main characters, I do indeed wish that Richard Scarry had in his sections on farming, the airport and the harbour at the very least also presented tie-ins to Huckle Cat and company, for as these three sections appear now, they certainly do feel rather a bit tacked on, they do seem as not quite belonging to and in Best Little Word Book Ever thematics wise (and yes, even the alphabet and parts of the body section at least to and for me do not really feel like all that much belonging in Best Little Word Book Ever content wise as they equally only very vaguely and insignificantly at best relate to the Cat family both specifically and generally, although I guess that perhaps the parts of the body section might still work well enough as the body presented and having its parts shown and explained is indeed a feline).
But that having all been said and albeit that I have indeed found Best Little Word Book Ever a generally interesting and informative (read successful) enough general introduction to the Cat family, to their clothing, their house, their day-to-day lives and yes that Best Little Word Book Ever also is and represents most definitely a very much useful and engagingly fun learning and teaching tool for basic English vocabulary recognition and language usage practice (and like usual, Richard Scarry's accompanying illustrations are of course descriptive, bright, cheerful and as such in my opinion also perfect for many if not most young children's eyes and visual tastes), I do (personally and in my opinion) also consider the sections of Best Little Word Book Ever that come after the Cat family's shopping excursion quite annoyingly unrelated to the members of the family in and of themselves. For while the details and the described, featured vocabulary words with regard to farming, the airport and the harbour are of course interesting and informative, considering that Best Little Word Book Ever basically does generally present the Cat family as its main characters, I do indeed wish that Richard Scarry had in his sections on farming, the airport and the harbour at the very least also presented tie-ins to Huckle Cat and company, for as these three sections appear now, they certainly do feel rather a bit tacked on, they do seem as not quite belonging to and in Best Little Word Book Ever thematics wise (and yes, even the alphabet and parts of the body section at least to and for me do not really feel like all that much belonging in Best Little Word Book Ever content wise as they equally only very vaguely and insignificantly at best relate to the Cat family both specifically and generally, although I guess that perhaps the parts of the body section might still work well enough as the body presented and having its parts shown and explained is indeed a feline).
April 26, 2025
Hoje vi um meme sobre o RFK Jr em que diziam que o Lowly Worm estava dentro da cabeça dele, para quem não sabe, o dito cujo de fato tem um verme vivendo na cabeça dele e comeu parte de seu cérebro (inacreditável, eu sei, mas é verídico, o próprio Kennedy mencionou isso ano passado). Como não conhecia o Lowly Worm, fui procurar e soube que além de ser um personagem longevo do Richard Scarry para inúmeros livros infantis, também houveram séries animadas para seus personagens na TV, uma delas o Lowly Worm está sempre dirigindo um carrinho em forma de maçã, o que explica o meme que vi com a cabeça do Kennedy. Rá!
February 29, 2008
I loved this as a child and I am now brainwashing my son.
December 10, 2012
This is a very cute picture book. It is mainly to boost a child's vocabulary and help them identify things in the world around them.
I liked how the family are portrayed for the most part - it's always good to see the Daddy do some of the washing up!
The artwork is quite good - very simple and cute.
Some of the words seem a bit complicated for younger readers. I am not sure how many children will remember 'measuring spoons','flight attendant', 'propeller plane' etc
Something that jarred me was the spelling of axe. I am so used to it being 'axe' that when I read 'ax' it made me question the reliability of the book, until I discovered it was an alternate spelling.
It is nice to see a list of the letters of the alphabet, and diagrams of the parts of the body.
I think the book starts off with a bit of a narrative (introfucing the family, following them as they go out shopping), then becomes more like a list of places and words associated with them, rather than about the family. It also ends in a bit of a rush.
It's a decent enough book though, and with a bit of imagination when reading it aloud, I am sure that children will enjoy it.
I liked how the family are portrayed for the most part - it's always good to see the Daddy do some of the washing up!
The artwork is quite good - very simple and cute.
Some of the words seem a bit complicated for younger readers. I am not sure how many children will remember 'measuring spoons','flight attendant', 'propeller plane' etc
Something that jarred me was the spelling of axe. I am so used to it being 'axe' that when I read 'ax' it made me question the reliability of the book, until I discovered it was an alternate spelling.
It is nice to see a list of the letters of the alphabet, and diagrams of the parts of the body.
I think the book starts off with a bit of a narrative (introfucing the family, following them as they go out shopping), then becomes more like a list of places and words associated with them, rather than about the family. It also ends in a bit of a rush.
It's a decent enough book though, and with a bit of imagination when reading it aloud, I am sure that children will enjoy it.
April 12, 2022
2022
2021
Gift from Harper's grandmother
Has a lot of words about things you can find in the home, outside, or in a store
2021
Gift from Harper's grandmother
Has a lot of words about things you can find in the home, outside, or in a store
October 17, 2025
I remember as a child reading these books as if they held the keys to the universe. I love the little drawings and randomness of what is included and what is not. I remember the joy of realizing, “I know the word for that!”
February 25, 2024
This is the best book ever
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 2, 2018
Richard Scarry's Best Little Word Book Ever is everything I hate about children's literature. I know the assumption is, that because something is for kids, the barrier of entry for the quality of a product doesn't need to be very high, since a thing doesn't usually need to be of particularly good quality to hold a child's attention, but I'm not a fan of this assumption.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting all children's authors to be as brilliant as Dr. Suess or Margaret Wise Brown. I do find many of the books I've read to my baby to be irritating, because they seemed to be written by mediocre writers who think stringing together random words that rhyme in a couplet makes for poetry, giving no other thought to structure, stress, or meter, because, you know, "it's for kids, and what do kids know, right?" But even those irritating little children's books don't attract my hatred the way this little word book has.
Removing the self-aggrandizing adjective, "best", this little word book is exactly what it advertises itself to be, a book with words in it. The way it sets itself up isn't what annoys me, it's a fairly basic setup. There's Huckle cat, his sister Sally, and his parents. From the offset, it seems as though it's simply going to be Huckle bringing you through a day in his life, showing you all of the commonplace objects he encounters in his life, day-to-day. We start with the clothes he wears on the first page, the next page we see his house and its rooms, the next page we see the kitchen more closely and the objects you find in the kitchen, on the next page we see him in the car with his family and all the vehicles he may encounter on the road, then we see some the town center, then we see the inside of a supermarket. It's not a grand set-up for a book, but at least there's connective tissue carrying you through from site to site, simply presenting random objects you might see from place to place, and giving you the names for them. It's fairly tedious, and annoying to read, but it's fine. When this book really starts to annoy me, is after the super-market, we simply abandon the character we're introduced to in the beginning entirely, and then we're shown three more random sites with no rhyme or reason: a farm, an airport, and a harbor, which makes no sense, because up until this point, we've been introduced to everyday things through the eyes of Huckle, then suddenly we drop Huckle and are introduced to some random sites, all of which are places most children would never see day to day, and we're given a borderline useless vocabulary to understanding or successfully navigating each of these sites. Then, the book pivots again and we're given four full pages of ABC's, and then the last page of the book brings us back to Huckle with a list of some of his body parts before ending.
While I tend to go easy on children's books, especially books that my baby happens to like me reading to her, this word book is the apotheosis of lazily slapped together children's books, and I have read A LOT of lazy children's books. Richard Scarry put barely any discernible thought at all into constructing a children's word book with any sense of logic or connective tissue, and what tiny little scrap of thought he did put into the foundation of this book is abandoned halfway through.
I honestly don't think I'm asking for much when all I'm wanting out of a children's book is some semblance of connective tissue to hold the images and words included in the book together, or at least a discernible train of logic. A good example of a children's book with seemingly random words and definitions would be A Hold is to Dig, by Ruth Krauss, which is a book full of silly definitions, but the train of logic pulling you from one definition to the other always feels clear. It's organized, guided randomness, if that makes any sense at all. There's a lot of care, and thought that goes into each silly definition, and the next silly definition that comes after it This word book is just thoughtless, chaotic, lazy randomness. And it is everything I hate about the worst children's books have to offer.
Just because it's for children, doesn't mean the author doesn't have to put any thought into it at all.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting all children's authors to be as brilliant as Dr. Suess or Margaret Wise Brown. I do find many of the books I've read to my baby to be irritating, because they seemed to be written by mediocre writers who think stringing together random words that rhyme in a couplet makes for poetry, giving no other thought to structure, stress, or meter, because, you know, "it's for kids, and what do kids know, right?" But even those irritating little children's books don't attract my hatred the way this little word book has.
Removing the self-aggrandizing adjective, "best", this little word book is exactly what it advertises itself to be, a book with words in it. The way it sets itself up isn't what annoys me, it's a fairly basic setup. There's Huckle cat, his sister Sally, and his parents. From the offset, it seems as though it's simply going to be Huckle bringing you through a day in his life, showing you all of the commonplace objects he encounters in his life, day-to-day. We start with the clothes he wears on the first page, the next page we see his house and its rooms, the next page we see the kitchen more closely and the objects you find in the kitchen, on the next page we see him in the car with his family and all the vehicles he may encounter on the road, then we see some the town center, then we see the inside of a supermarket. It's not a grand set-up for a book, but at least there's connective tissue carrying you through from site to site, simply presenting random objects you might see from place to place, and giving you the names for them. It's fairly tedious, and annoying to read, but it's fine. When this book really starts to annoy me, is after the super-market, we simply abandon the character we're introduced to in the beginning entirely, and then we're shown three more random sites with no rhyme or reason: a farm, an airport, and a harbor, which makes no sense, because up until this point, we've been introduced to everyday things through the eyes of Huckle, then suddenly we drop Huckle and are introduced to some random sites, all of which are places most children would never see day to day, and we're given a borderline useless vocabulary to understanding or successfully navigating each of these sites. Then, the book pivots again and we're given four full pages of ABC's, and then the last page of the book brings us back to Huckle with a list of some of his body parts before ending.
While I tend to go easy on children's books, especially books that my baby happens to like me reading to her, this word book is the apotheosis of lazily slapped together children's books, and I have read A LOT of lazy children's books. Richard Scarry put barely any discernible thought at all into constructing a children's word book with any sense of logic or connective tissue, and what tiny little scrap of thought he did put into the foundation of this book is abandoned halfway through.
I honestly don't think I'm asking for much when all I'm wanting out of a children's book is some semblance of connective tissue to hold the images and words included in the book together, or at least a discernible train of logic. A good example of a children's book with seemingly random words and definitions would be A Hold is to Dig, by Ruth Krauss, which is a book full of silly definitions, but the train of logic pulling you from one definition to the other always feels clear. It's organized, guided randomness, if that makes any sense at all. There's a lot of care, and thought that goes into each silly definition, and the next silly definition that comes after it This word book is just thoughtless, chaotic, lazy randomness. And it is everything I hate about the worst children's books have to offer.
Just because it's for children, doesn't mean the author doesn't have to put any thought into it at all.
May 27, 2008
I have never really been a fan of these Richard Scarry word books.
July 14, 2018
In light of the child development I've studied, I realize now the jackpot that Richard Scarry hit.
The concept couldn't be simpler: Here's the picture, here's the label. This is a "_____." Look and name, look and name, all through the book.
The book can serve two developmental "purposes":
First of all, tapping into the voracious (unconscious) desires of the three and four year old to build vocabulary... I remember looking at this book endlessly, never tiring of naming--naming naming naming--a distinct developmental function both enjoyable and useful. The three year old vacuums it up, and it all becomes a part of their language skills.
Secondarily, the book can help a child to read. The adult should not hit them over the head with this, but let it happen naturally as they become interested in print. None of this "Let's sound it out" business; wait until they take an interest, and guide them calmly, without that tension and whoop-de-do that so often comes from a parent when a child first start to look at words.
The best thing about this book is that it's FUN. There really isn't any other function. Get a copy, and enjoy with your two to five year old! Or other ages!
The concept couldn't be simpler: Here's the picture, here's the label. This is a "_____." Look and name, look and name, all through the book.
The book can serve two developmental "purposes":
First of all, tapping into the voracious (unconscious) desires of the three and four year old to build vocabulary... I remember looking at this book endlessly, never tiring of naming--naming naming naming--a distinct developmental function both enjoyable and useful. The three year old vacuums it up, and it all becomes a part of their language skills.
Secondarily, the book can help a child to read. The adult should not hit them over the head with this, but let it happen naturally as they become interested in print. None of this "Let's sound it out" business; wait until they take an interest, and guide them calmly, without that tension and whoop-de-do that so often comes from a parent when a child first start to look at words.
The best thing about this book is that it's FUN. There really isn't any other function. Get a copy, and enjoy with your two to five year old! Or other ages!
June 21, 2022
The physical book is a 3***.
The e-book is 2**.
I downloaded it to read to the kids while we were waiting on their dad in the car. Handsdown most bug-filled children's book I've ever seen, so I deleted it and downloaded it on a different device then in a different app. The problems persisted.
The individual letters in the lines of text are not even (some float above the bottom of the line, some drop below it). The vowels were replaced by symbols. I flipped through the whole book and found glaring issues on every page.
Could I have read it if I really wanted to? Yeah. Do I really want to? Nah.
The e-book is 2**.
I downloaded it to read to the kids while we were waiting on their dad in the car. Handsdown most bug-filled children's book I've ever seen, so I deleted it and downloaded it on a different device then in a different app. The problems persisted.
The individual letters in the lines of text are not even (some float above the bottom of the line, some drop below it). The vowels were replaced by symbols. I flipped through the whole book and found glaring issues on every page.
Could I have read it if I really wanted to? Yeah. Do I really want to? Nah.
April 25, 2021
I think I rate books higher when I remember them as a child. I really remember this one my little brother Bryan is nine years younger than me and this was one of his favorites. I remember reading it to him a lot. He loved all of the pictures and the trucks and cars. He actually drives dump trucks and excavators for a living. His favorite thing was to find the goldbug on each page. Richard Scarry has an amazing artistic ability to draw kids into each page.
April 5, 2023
This is a cute little book that can help kids to learn words/expand their vocabulary. On each page as the story goes on, there are objects on the page that are related to what the text says, which is a good way to connect words to an image. The characters are really cute and I like how they put a picture for each word. This book would be a great way to expose kids to words they might not know, which again, helps build their vocabulary.
December 11, 2023
My best friend had a bunch of Richard Scarry's books and I loved them so much I'd ask to borrow them so I could read them over and over again. I most loved the artwork, which is so darn cute I can hardly stand it. Revisiting this book was such fun and the artwork once again captivates. It's so happy and fun. It was delightful reading this again! It sparkles with joy!
June 1, 2017
Enjoyed this when I was younger.
July 5, 2017
Mommy read this book to me that we got from the library
July 17, 2017
Reviews with Spencer
Spencer (3.5) liked the idea of this but didn't get into it as there was a lack of story and he enjoyed playing with tapping the screen more than reading the book
Spencer (3.5) liked the idea of this but didn't get into it as there was a lack of story and he enjoyed playing with tapping the screen more than reading the book
November 16, 2018
Very nice beginner (board) book of beginning words.
December 12, 2019
Easy and good for young children who want to read.
January 2, 2021
Well, it’s not the best anymore. It’s okay.
March 11, 2023
Cute word book for young children.
September 23, 2023
Checked this out from the library because I had a copy in my house growing up, and I wanted to feel that again.
October 20, 2023
👧👧👦 childhood - my brother had all these books 🥰
February 28, 2024
For a Golden Book, it packs in several words to help a child learn all of the names of objects, the alphabett and body parts.
February 16, 2021
If you would like to introduce your child to the many books of Richard Scarry, this is a great book to start out with. Not only does it teach children the many names of common items (e.g. clothing, things inside a kitchen, types of cars, etc.) but it also introduces the reader to some of the characters that feature prominently in Scarry's books (e.g. Lowly Worm and Huckle Cat). Just a great little book to introduce the names and places of the world to a child.
Age: Infant-Toddler
Age: Infant-Toddler
September 8, 2014
We borrowed this one through our local library and the READS system with Overdrive to my Kindle Fire. This is such an awesome way to borrow library books. I hope that they will continue to broaden their availability with other books soon. If these as eBooks did not cost the same as the physical copies I'd buy them by the dozens as they became available.
I love Richard Scarry from my own childhood and I'm delighted to share these with my daughters, especially my beginning preschooler. The pages filled with vocabulary are great to just stare at and learn things for hours. I really hope she'll continue to love Richard Scarry as much as she does now.
I love Richard Scarry from my own childhood and I'm delighted to share these with my daughters, especially my beginning preschooler. The pages filled with vocabulary are great to just stare at and learn things for hours. I really hope she'll continue to love Richard Scarry as much as she does now.
August 11, 2013
It's sad that parents don't use books like this to teach their children anymore. I mean, with the never-ending evolution of gadgets, they can just download educational applications on their smartphones. But you know what, I think it's still better to introduce books to your kids at an early age. We shouldn't stop teaching them how to love books because it's one of the beautiful things in the world.
Anyway, as for this book, I'll give it a 4 for the illustrations and 5 for the content! :)
Anyway, as for this book, I'll give it a 4 for the illustrations and 5 for the content! :)
June 18, 2013
This is the best LITTLE word book ever. If you're looking for the Best Word Book Ever, it's no longer in print. They made it politically correct and removed alot of the charm and humor. No more handsome pilot. Now he's just pilot.
Still love Richard Scarry. Just don't love the world that's grown up around him.
Still love Richard Scarry. Just don't love the world that's grown up around him.
November 29, 2015
This is a picture book that introduces vocabulary to young readers. It is cute but the page can be pretty busy at times and some words may be to advanced. It points out daily household items and roles, and attempts to modernize gender roles by having the dad wash dishes and referring to certain jobs as person rather than "man" in a middle class hetero family.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews