One of our Books of the Year 2016 | June 2016 Book of the Month
Dictionaries don’t come more fun than this celebration of Roald Dahl, his books and the joy he took in gobblefunking (ie playing with words, inventing new words and meanings). Dahl had an extraordinary understanding of what children like and used onomatopoeia to create words full of sounds that children love to say: lickswishy, wondercrump, phizz-whizzing and of course scrumdiddlyumptious are all featured in this ‘extra—usual’ dictionary. In fact there are almost 8,000 words, real and made-real-by-Dahl, mostly words featured in his books, some just there for fun, and this is a book to browse happily for hours on end. It will encourage children to invent words themselves and liven up their own writing and with colour illustrations by Quentin Blake on every page this is squiffling in every way.
A new unique Roald Dahl Dictionary from Oxford. This is not an ordinary dictionary. After all, you wouldn't expect an 'Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary' to be ordinary, would you? Lots of dictionaries tell you what an 'alligator' is, or how to spell 'balloon' but they won't explain the difference between a 'ringbeller' and a 'trogglehumper', or say why witches need 'gruntles' eggs' or suggest a word for the shape of a 'Knid'. This dictionary does all those things. All the words that Roald Dahl invented are here, like 'biffsquiggled' and 'whizzpopping' to remind you what means what, but that is not all. You'll also find out where words came from, rhyming words, synonyms and lots of alternative words for words that are overused.
Oxford Children's Dictionaries are perfect for supporting literacy and learning and this is the world's first Roald Dahl Dictionary from the word experts at Oxford University Press. With real citations from Roald Dahl's children's books and illustrations by Quentin Blake, this is authoritative, engaging and accessible and will inspire and encourage young writers and readers.
Perfect way to introduce a new generation to Matilda and co Radio Times
Author
About Oxford Dictionaries, Susan Rennie, Roald Dahl
Susan Rennie, Quentin Blake, Roald Dahl Susan Rennie has worked on many dictionaries for both children and adults, including the Oxford Primary Dictionary, Oxford Primary Thesaurus, the Oxford English Thesaurus for Schools and the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. She also writes books in Scots for children, and has translated the first Scots edition of Tintin. Susan is currently a Lecturer in English Language at the University of Glasgow where she teaches lexicography and the history of Scots and English.
A message from Luke Kelly, Managing Director of the Roald Dahl Literary Estate and Roald Dahl's grandson: It's hard to find the right word to express our levels of excitement around the 'Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary'. Squacking? Jumpsquiffling? Gigantuous? Roald Dahl's inventive, playful use of language is such a key element of his writing, whether he was using existing words in his own mischievous way or inventing extra-usual new ones. It is wonderful to have this dictionary compiled with such expertise, passion and wit by Dr Susan Rennie and the team at OUP. There could be no more fitting way to pay tribute to Roald Dahl in the year of celebrations for his centenary. Best of all, as a fully-functioning dictionary for readers and writers aged eight and above, I hope it serves as a swashboggling source of inspiration for a whole new generation of storytellers.
Teachers CLICK HERE to download some phizz-whizzing activity sheets to use in class!
