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The Weighty Word Book
"[ The Weighty Word Book ] will appeal to kids who want to sound as smart as they are. It offers a clever, funny way to introduce new words into the vocabulary. . . . There's one word for every letter of the alphabet--wait until you see what they do with dogmatic, juxtapose and zealot."-- The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colorado)
"Each of these twenty-six short stories takes an elaborate, circuitous path that leads to a 'weighty' one-word punch line. . . . It's a creative and humorous approach to vocabulary building, and a natural lead in to having students create their own tall tales with multisyllabic conclusions."-- School Library Journal
"Each of these twenty-six short stories takes an elaborate, circuitous path that leads to a 'weighty' one-word punch line. . . . It's a creative and humorous approach to vocabulary building, and a natural lead in to having students create their own tall tales with multisyllabic conclusions."-- School Library Journal
96 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
About the author
Paul M. Levitt
35 books12 followersPaul M. Levitt is professor emeritus of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he taught modern drama, theater, history, and the gangster novel. He has written more than 20 books (six of them novels), radio plays for the BBC, books about medicine, stories for children, and numerous popular and scholarly articles. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 18, 2024
An excellent book for a young reader looking to expand their vocabulary. Each letter of the alphabet gets a “weighty word” such as “Truculent” and a humorous story is told with comedic and well-drawn illustrations that ends with a pun that not only explains the meaning of the word but how to accurately pronounce them as well.
September 12, 2012
abasement, bifurcate, coruscate, dogmatic, expedient, felicity, geriatrics, heresy, ingratiate, juxtapose, kleptomaniac, laxity, misdemeanor, nonconformity, ostracize, paradox, quixotic, raucous, Scintillate, truculent, ubiquitous, vacillate, winsome, xenophobia, yammer, zealot
Exceptional teaching book for parent or teacher sharing
I will read it again and again and be sure the grandchildren have a copy in their homes
Uses a memory pun to remember the words, one given for 26 different little stories, each with a pun to help you remember a multi-syLlabi.c word, one for each alphabet letter,
Not only teaches word meaning but a valuable technique for remembering other words or names they meet in the future
Exceptional teaching book for parent or teacher sharing
I will read it again and again and be sure the grandchildren have a copy in their homes
Uses a memory pun to remember the words, one given for 26 different little stories, each with a pun to help you remember a multi-syLlabi.c word, one for each alphabet letter,
Not only teaches word meaning but a valuable technique for remembering other words or names they meet in the future
April 14, 2008
When I was in the sixth grade, one of my teachers read this book aloud to her classes. It uses a one to two page story to tell a story that will define a big word (example--dogmatic means stubborn, so it tells the story of a dog mat tick, who refused to live on the dog with her parents and went to live in the dog's mat instead), making it easy for kids (and adults!) to learn big words. There is one word for every letter of the alphabet. Each story has a beautiful illustration to go with it. Everyone should read this book!
January 7, 2012
OMG! I picked this up randomly at the library but it turns out that my seventh grade language arts teacher used this book to teach us our vocabulary. I'm not sure why, but the "dogmatic" story stuck in my memory all these years :).
Levitt, Burger, Guralnick, and Stevens make a great team. The word choice, stories, and illustrations work well together. The stories could use some updating for the current generations but I still find them relevant and helpful for teaching the meaning of these 26 words.
Levitt, Burger, Guralnick, and Stevens make a great team. The word choice, stories, and illustrations work well together. The stories could use some updating for the current generations but I still find them relevant and helpful for teaching the meaning of these 26 words.
June 27, 2014
Love this book! It came to me through my daughter as her H.S. English teacher was reading it to them. I love the way the author has created puns to help understand and increase vocabulary. I started reading it to my own students, and will start the year with it.
September 17, 2010
Silly imaginative stories help students learn the meanings of 26 multi-syllabic words (one for each letter of the alphabet).
November 18, 2021
Very clever stories to explain "weighty" words! One of my favorites was "Ubiquitous" -- but they were all fun, A-Z!
January 22, 2022
CENTRAL ACADEMY REPS GO HERE
July 26, 2011
Each letter of the alphabet matches a "big" word. The accompanying story is kind of silly but provides a way to remember the meaning of the word by having something about the story end up sounding like the word. For example, in one story, a circus manager (Mr. Sawdust) was looking for a new act. After watching several, here comes Cora, a skater whose skating is dazzling, glittering, sparkling. The story ends in the manner of all of them: "So, whenever someone (or something) glitters and gleams, sparkles and flashes, think of Mr. Sawdust saying, "Boy, can that Cora skate," and you will remember the word coruscate." The stories are generally well written and have clever character names. Some of them feel a little more contrived than others--but when I imagine giving this task to students (to write a story that provides a reminder of the word's sound that explains what it means), I am impressed. It can't be as easy as it looks.
January 4, 2013
I find it interesting the trend in children's informational books: they are almost textbook like. If I were still teaching an English class, I would probably use this book to teach both reading and vocabulary. I like the text feature techniques the author uses to help students learn words: illustrations, Bold print and and a story to help remember what the word means.
The only change I would make is to include somewhere in the book sentences actually using the word correctly as one or more parts of speech. It couled be done at the end of each "chapter"/ word story or in a glossary at the end of the book. Actual inclusion of the word into every day use is the only area the book does not cover well.
The only change I would make is to include somewhere in the book sentences actually using the word correctly as one or more parts of speech. It couled be done at the end of each "chapter"/ word story or in a glossary at the end of the book. Actual inclusion of the word into every day use is the only area the book does not cover well.
March 10, 2009
One of the most inventive books about words for children.
One example: the story behind the word xenophobia. Four foreigners walked into a bar and tried to order four beers. When they said, in heavily accented voices, "zee need fo bee-uh", they were laughed at and feared by the bar's jingoistic regulars. And that's where we get the word xenophobia.
There are 25 other such stories.
One example: the story behind the word xenophobia. Four foreigners walked into a bar and tried to order four beers. When they said, in heavily accented voices, "zee need fo bee-uh", they were laughed at and feared by the bar's jingoistic regulars. And that's where we get the word xenophobia.
There are 25 other such stories.
April 21, 2012
A cute way to help you remember the definition of hard words.
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November 25, 2014This book provides fresh new ways to introduce vocabulary to students.
July 18, 2016
read in 6th grade, but I still remember the creative stories of each word and it really helped my vocabulary
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews