Big Words Small Stories: The Traveling Dustball

by Judith Henderson, T. L. McBeth

Overview

Watch out! Big Word coming in for a landing! The second book in the Big Words Small Stories series follows the adventures of Davey and his dog, Abigail. When Davey tries to sweep an enormous dustball out the front door, the wind lifts the dustball into the air, and Davey and Abigail with it! Their flying dustball takes them on exciting adventures to places around the world, including Italy, China and Switzerland, which makes for some great stories (five, to be exact)! As with the first book in the series, the mischievous Sprinkle Fairy and her helpers have slipped a Big Word, its pronunciation and definition into each story. The stories include Big Words like lollygagging, irksome and phenomenon — what kid could resist trying those out?! Sometimes, only a Big Word will do!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781525302664
Publisher:	Kids Can Press
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Series:	Big Words Small Stories
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	24 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Judith Henderson is an Emmy Award-winning children's TV composer and producer. She is the author of the Big Words Small Stories series. Judith lives in Montreal, Quebec.;T. L. McBeth is the illustrator of Stegothesaurus and the Big Words Small Stories series. His work has been displayed at the Society of Illustrators. He lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

2019-01-28

Chores become fun via an enormous flying dustball and word nerdery.

Bespectacled Davey is sweeping under the couch. When he enlists his dog's grudging help to dispose of a sizable dustball, a gust of wind takes the two up, up, and away on a grand adventure to Italy, Hawaii, China, and Switzerland. Along with sending the pair to a new location, each chapter also introduces a "big word," such as "irksome," "brouhaha," "lollygagging," "collywobbles," and "phenomenon." As in series opener The Missing Donut (2018), colorful beings called Sprinklers pop in to alert the reader before any "big word" is introduced ("Big word coming. BIG!"). Their leader, the Sprinkle Fairy, adds idiom-filled commentary. The repetitive formula, which smartly deviates in the final chapter to combine all the "big words" into a humorous skit, will indeed introduce readers who have some confidence already to new words. The quirky cartoon illustrations have ample white space, but readers unfamiliar with comics conventions may find the layout hard to follow without panels and speech bubbles. Additionally, the globe-trotting sequences rely on visual stereotypes to convey the locations (for example, the Swiss characters wear lederhosen and dirndls, and the Italians carry plates of spaghetti and meatballs; the depiction of an elderly Chinese man avoids facial stereotypes, however). Davey has brown skin and black hair; the Sprinkle Fairy presents white.

A dustball of fun for fairly fluent readers. (Early reader. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews