13 Words

I give it four stars for the art and the focus on one of my favorite things - cake! It's Maira Kalman's typical style; seemingly unrelated, sketchy images given relationship through their coloring and juxtaposition. I wonder if the story was written to the art or if the art was created for the

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story (the former seems most likely).

I think Kalman herself is the despondent bird, eating cake and painting ladders. The dog in the story looked suspicously Max-like, especially once he started trying on hats.

The story itself is sort of odd - I'm sure there's some porquoi tale of how this story came to be, lol. Why 13 words, why these 13 words? They certainly aren't any sort of controlled vocabulary and the words don't really have a common theme - in that sense it's not a "useful" children's book (cringe cringe) for learning to read or learning vocabulary. Well you know what I mean. It's kind of like a party game where you all pick a word out of a hat and somehow have to make a coherent story.

Interesting! Not the best, but still interesting. And the art is amazing.

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Snicket, L., & Kalman, M. (2010). 13 words. New York: Harper.

This droll picture book by Lemony Snicket will have some teachers and students scratching their heads. He weaves a very silly—and in places absurd—story (“Now my friend is busy painting eleven ladders in ten colors”) around

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thirteen unrelated words, which he obliquely defines when necessary (“haberdashery” and “despondent”). It is deceptively simple, yet the thirteen very random words do weave a fun tale. The illustrations more than carry the text—they provide a lively, vibrant realm in which this amusing tale can be told. The picture of the despondent bird reading a magazine with a ‘do rag on his head (after painting the 11 ladders) is very endearing. The book works on several levels: writing a book in this style would make for a very creative activity for 4th grade and up, but the book as a story is best suited for K-3. However, there are a few images that could only be understood by an older reader (a little book titled “Kafka” on the despondent bird’s table). The whimsical style of writing is very appropriate for overall theme of the book. 13 Words has “relaxing” and “fun” written all over it—but not literally. No awards could be found.

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I enjoy Lemony Snicket almost as much as I enjoy saying his name, which is a lot. I always noticed how he worked new and interesting vocabulary words into the Series of Unfortunate Events books, but I never thought he'd make a whole children's book centered around certain words. An interesting

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theory and something children can definitely learn from, Mr. Snicket takes these 13 seemingly unrelated words and uses them all to spin a silly and delightful tale that will have just about anyone smiling. A really great book to use with children when you are encouraging them to make sentences out of vocabulary words. It will be so interesting for them to see an author making a whole story out of a list of words. Some children might not understand all the words, but I think they can definitely get the concept. I also liked it because even being 20 and in college I have to admit I learned a new word myself. Thank you, Mr. Snicket.

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13 Words is like an exercise for a creative writing class or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants story you tell your kids when they request one and you are too tired or lacking in energy to come up with a coherent plot. The book's cover jacket lists 13 unrelated words, which range from the fairly

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mundane, everyday words most young readers would recognize (i.e., bird, cake) to the unusual, fun-to-say words (i.e., haberdashery, panache). The text of the book itself aims to wrap together all these together into a story, which it does with some success. The story is silly and absurd, but it doesn't quite live up to the genius of Snicket's books for older children, A Series of Unfortunate Events. Nevertheless, it should be pleasing to young children and, failing that, will at least teach them some new words!

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I must admit that even though I'm personally unfamiliar with anything having to do with "Lemony Snicket," the impact of the art style and purpose of the book is easily recognized. Using a list of 13 vocabulary words, the author builds a unique story which easily introduces these possibly unfamiliar

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words in a clear and creative manner. The suitability for this book as a means to expand a student's vocabulary in a visually and literarily attractive fashion is undoubtedly apparent.

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This book goes through 13 vocabulary words and beautiful illustrations to go along with the words. The words are all put together in one story that combines all of the 13 words. The author uses a sense of humor for all ages to enjoy the book. The 13 words go together randomly so the reader never

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knows what is going to be next. This book helps accelerate creativity and imagination with the story going in many different places.

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I love the words Snicket uses and Kalman's illustrations, but the point of it all is a mystery to me.

Well you can count on Lemony Snicket to write a book that leaves you confused but always entertained and a little thoughtful. I read one review that said this would make a great writing exercise for 4th or 5th graders. Think of 13 random words, then write a story that ties them together. The

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illustrations are fantastic and add to the enjoyment of the book while maintaining the whimsical, slightly offbeat character of the book.

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Having read and written a lot of these "use the spelling words" sentence activities, finding out that there's a published book that does the same thing is hilarious.

Kids will love hearing and learning words like "despondent," "haberdashery" and "panache"--and are likely not to forget them!

Word # 1 is Bird, and the story follows him as he does some strange things with some other strange characters. This book helps broaden your vocabulary and possibly your imagination?

Short but very sweet :)

I'm not sure how I absolutely feel about this one. It is very quirky and has Snicket's trademark dry humor and love of interesting vocabulary. The art is well done, colorful and eyecatching. For me, however, the story was too random and mismatched, even for a fictional world meant to be bizarre. As

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a picture book to be read aloud and shown, however, it works very well.

As a vocabulary lesson, I would recommend it to younger readers, I suppose in the six to nine age range. And if you think your kids are too young or too 'good' (whatever that means) to become acquainted with words like haberdashery and panache, maybe you should examine why and consider the fact that occasionally exposing them to material slightly above their grade level can actually foster mental growth and curiosity about language. But what do I know? I've just been reading since the age of three. Oh, and I'm an English major. #kanyeshrug

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