Review: Words by Katherine Davis-Gibbon, Illustrated by Anne Berry

A wonderfully imaginative book for early readers, Words by Katherine Davis-Gibbon, with illustrations by Anne Berry, is a colorful and creative guide about navigating language and reading.

As the story explains, words are all around us all the time, and as a young person begins to explore this wide world of language, it can be an exciting and uncertain adventure. Through the lens of a day out at the park, readers learn about some of the relationships between words, how they work together and separately, and where things can get confusing when we’re speaking, writing, and reading. Whether you’re in the sandbox, playing with friends, walking your dog, or hiding behind a tree, words are everywhere, in every single thing that you see. A child may not always know the right words, but the book stresses that learning words is a lifelong journey, which is only just beginning.

While this premise initially might seem a bit difficult to conceptualize in a children’s book, the illustrations make for a seamless blend of form and function. Peppered on almost every page are dozens of hidden words, as in the cover – in the clouds, trees, bugs, grass, and other elements – boosting the book’s interactivity and maintaining continual engagement. The illustrations are masterfully done, providing a beautiful piece of art to explore with every turn of the page; children will be continually searching to study these words, which is precisely the point of the story. There is also a poetic pairing of messaging, with the uniqueness and importance of words being compared to the value of individuality and confidence in ourselves, a multilayered purpose that doesn’t jumble up themes, and is perfectly integrated into the story.

Even as an adult reader, new words buried in bushes and the bodies of animals would seem to magically appear on a new corner of the page, without necessarily being frustrating for a young child, and instead offering a sense of discovery. That being said, some pages felt absent of this theme – there are many spaces that call out for cleverly shaped words to be inserted and camouflaged, making it feel like there are some missed opportunities for even more interaction. Similarly, for a book about language, there is a limited amount of prose, and some of the ideas aren’t as clear as they could be, such as “Words can feel shy and hide when we need them.” Adults will understand what the author is trying to convey, but these moments will likely need to be explained.

Despite these minor execution issues, this is an undeniably unique and engaging book that operates on multiple levels – increasing comfort and familiarity with words, while encouraging self-confidence in the learning process, and aimed at a range of developmental stages, from color, shape, and association practice to moderately complex reading. The most effective children’s books are those that can function subtly on a range of access levels, and this title excels at teaching kids without ever feeling like a lesson.