The Dictionary Story (B&N Exclusive Edition)

by Oliver Jeffers, Sam Winston, Oliver Jeffers (Illustrator), Sam Winston (Illustrator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

A dictionary gone rogue, bringing her words to life… literally. This is a visual journey that's great for curious young minds who love thinking outside the box.

This Barnes & Noble Exclusive Edition contains a collectible art print!
A Barnes & Noble 2024 Book of the Year Finalist.
A Barnes & Noble's Best Picture Book of 2024.

From the award-winning creative team of Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston comes an enchanting and imaginative picture book certain to delight word lovers of any age.

Dictionary wishes she could tell a story like other books. So one day, she decides to bring her words to life. How exciting it is to finally have an adventure on her very own pages! But what will she do when her characters collide and everything gets all in a jumble, causing the most enormous tantrum to explode? This isn’t what she wanted at all! Luckily her friend Alphabet knows exactly what to do and sings a song that brings calm and order to Dictionary’s pages once again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536248432
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	04/15/2025
Edition description:	B&N Exclusive Edition
Pages:	56
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.70(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Oliver Jeffers is an author-illustrator of many books for children, including A Child of Books with Sam Winston; Once Upon an Alphabet, which was named a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Honor Book; Lost and Found, which was a Nestlé Children’s Book Prize Gold Medal winner; and Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth, which was named a Time Magazine Top Ten Book of the Year. He is also the illustrator of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Day the Crayons Quit, written by Drew Daywalt, as well as a fine artist whose work ranges from figurative painting to installation. In 2022, he was named a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his services to the arts. Born in Australia, Oliver Jeffers grew up in Northern Ireland and now lives and works in Brooklyn.

Sam Winston is a fine artist whose work has been exhibited worldwide and is held in many permanent collections. Institutions that have exhibited or currently house his work include the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, the Tate Galleries in London, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. He is the cocreator of A Child of Books with Oliver Jeffers and the author-illustrator of One & Everything, which is currently featured in an exhibit on alphabets at the Bodleian, Oxford University, and which School Library Journal hailed in a starred review as a “a story that works on many levels for various ages, from a simple fable about greed to a wake-up call to value linguistic diversity.” Sam Winston lives and works in London.

Editorial Reviews

04/15/2024

Prior collaborators Jeffers and Winston used type as a dynamic visual element in A Child of Books, and it takes center stage too in this title—a quick-moving tale about a dictionary, “never quite sure of herself” among other books’ clear arcs. When the dictionary resolves to “bring her words to life,” an alligator promptly pushes two columns of A definitions apart like curtains and bursts theatrically onto the page. Alligator takes off, crossing left to right over arrayed definitions, tripping over illustrated Cloud, and “smelling something Delicious on the D pages.” Donut, anxious not to be eaten, accidentally rolls into Ghost, then plunges onward, startling Moon, who’s “surprised to see two words from the start of the dictionary.” The work features the leaves of a real dictionary within its own narrative spreads, setting up pleasing tension between unruly cartooned dictionary denizens and lines of crisp type, which droop and slide alarmingly under the characters’ pressure. Chaos ensues between the beings, until the dictionary manages to put her pages in order again. It’s a careful-what-you-wish-for story whose meta conceit and comic pacing would tickle any lexicographer. Ages 3–7. Agent: Paul Moreton, Bell Lomax Moreton. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

The creators of A Child of Books are back with another charming work of metafiction. . . . Unimaginable care has been taken with the very real handmade books that visibly bookend the story. . . . Meanwhile, pages are filled to the brim with tiny details for eyes both young and old to find and enjoy. . . . With hijinks and hilarity hidden on every page, this is a sweet, strange, wordy tale bound to delight all who pick it up.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

[A] marvelously creative endeavor. . . . Equally successful on varying levels, a young child would enjoy the humor of the characters’ adventures, while older readers and adults can delve into the rich details of the dictionary pages themselves.
—Booklist (starred review)

Oliver Jeffers is one of the most recognizable and innovative creators in children’s literature today, and The Dictionary Story showcases his vivid imagination at work in yet another collaboration with the wildly inventive Sam Winston. A masterful combination of the simple and the complex, this book is sure to be a favorite.
—BookPage (starred review)

Prior collaborators Jeffers and Winston used type as a dynamic visual element in A Child of Books, and it takes center stage too in this title—a quick-moving tale about a dictionary, “never quite sure of herself” among other books’ clear arcs. . . a careful-what-you-wish-for story whose meta conceit and comic pacing would tickle any lexicographer.
—Publishers Weekly

Wordplay abounds in the delightfully madcap and meta The Dictionary Story by the first-rate duo behind A Child of Books. . . . The authors' imaginative humor shines in text-heavy dictionary pages punctuated by the appearance of the alphabet-inspired creatures, illustrated in Jeffers's distinctive naïve style. . . .The joy is in the details in this story meant for misfits (like Ms. Dictionary herself): readers who take their time turning the pages will find gifts in the tiny print. . . . This playful celebration of language is sure to delight word lovers of all ages.
—Shelf Awareness

Ambitious, imaginative, and incredibly detailed. It’s about a dictionary who longs to tell a story like the other books on the shelf. So she decides to use some of her words for a story, but the words get a little out of hand and cause much chaos. Beyond the main story, the background illustrations of her pages show funny word definitions. There’s so much detail. It’s a longer-than-average picture book, and possibly my favorite by Jeffers so far. It’s sure to get lots of laughs.
—The Kids Are All Right

This stunning work of art in book form invites readers to return again and again to enjoy its humor and beauty.
—Daily Press

“This unique picture book upends the nature of a dictionary — words in alphabetical order — when Dictionary decides she wants to not just be a list but tell a story. Be careful what you wish for. The Dictionary Story is absurd, surreal, hilarious, and utterly charming. Kids will enjoy the humor, the illustrations, the mayhem, and they'll relate to the singalong solution Dictionary comes up with to get things back in order.”
—Common Sense Media

From the Publisher

★ 2024-05-04
The creators of A Child of Books (2016) are back with another charming work of metafiction.

A little dictionary notices that while other books tell stories, she’s just a list of definitions. Eager for change, Dictionary decides to bring her words to life, and things almost immediately get out of hand. A hungry alligator invades the D pages in search of a doughnut, which bounces further into the dictionary, running into a ghost, the moon, and a queen. All the while, and on almost every page, clues to the personalities, wants, and needs of the now-living words appear in the dictionary definitions, which are original, hilarious, and impressively plentiful. Things literally spiral into chaos thanks in large part to the appearance of a tornado, spilled ink, a Viking, and more. It takes Dictionary’s friend Alphabet, who has a helpful little song, to get things back in order once more. Unimaginable care has been taken with the very real handmade books that visibly bookend the story (the dictionary is noticeably worse for wear by the end). Meanwhile, pages are filled to the brim with tiny details for eyes both young and old to find and enjoy (for instance, the editors of this dictionary are listed as “Woliver Effers and Jam Spinston”). The occasional human characters have fanciful skin tones.

With hijinks and hilarity hidden on every page, this is a sweet, strange, wordy tale bound to delight all who pick it up. (Picture book. 4-10)

Kirkus Reviews