Rosen’s Almanac: Weird and wonderful words for every day of the year

by Michael Rosen

In a joyful journey through a year of wonderful words, one of the nation's favourite wordsmiths takes a tour of the English language and all its idiosyncrasies, in a delightful book for anyone who loves language - whether following its rules or breaking them!

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

226 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 5, 2024

About the author

Michael Rosen, a recent British Children’s Laureate, has written many acclaimed books for children, including WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, and I’M NUMBER ONE and THIS IS OUR HOUSE, both illustrated by Bob Graham. Michael Rosen lives in London.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Philip McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb compendium of words and phrases, some very idiosyncratic, for each day of the year, from Michael's social media followers and listeners of his BBC Radio 4 Word Of Mouth programme.
Interesting and evocative as the contributions of his correspondents are, I especially enjoyed Michael's own musings on language.
There are so many to mention. But I have to single out the entry for June 8th, which is a list of celebrities, but only their real names are listed. Some we may know, such as Reg Dwight is Elton John and Frances Gumm is Judy Garland. But who is Henry McCarty. Well he's Billy The Kid, also confusingly known as William H Bonney! Margaretha MacLeod was Mata Hari. I could go on. There are scores. Read them for yourself
A must for anyone interested in words and language :)

[Karen Mace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely collection of all things wordy!! Full of the weird and wonderful phrases that make up the English language, it's set out in this almanac for you to dip in and out of at your pleasure!

I loved reading all the different phrases that people used in their own family and many you use yourself and wonder where they've come from and why we use them! The author adds his own delightful recollections to it all and it's just a fun read!

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosen shares his passion and irreverence for words and the way we use them. It's funny not stuffy. I like the almanac format - would equally make a good gift or a toilet book.

[Jane Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clever

[Kate Goodenough · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet wondering book which relishes all the dialects of the many Englishes found in Great Britain