Best Picture Books About Words

Wordplay makes kids love language, it inspires writing and helps kids learn new vocabulary.  Celebrate words in these playful picture books all about words.

Best Picture Books About Wordplay

Flibbertigibbety Words: Young Shakespeare Chases Inspiration by Donna Guthrie, illustrated by Asa Gilland
Words fly into William’s window one day but when he tries to catch them, the words run away. William chases the words throughout London, passing things like the king’s carriage and three women stirring a boiling pot, with phrases from Shakespeare’s plays. Luckily, a generous peddler helps William catch his words with a pen and paper. Now he asks the words to stay with him and they do, telling of “leaky ships and far-off lands, kings and witches, roses and love letters.“ It’s a playful, fun introduction to Shakespeare and a love of language.

Lexie the Word Wrangler by Rebecca Van Slyke, illustrated by Jessie Hartland

Lexie’s a word wrangler, a cowgirl who mixes up fresh words each morning like corn and bread to make cornbread or turn an annoying pest into good pets. But someone is stealing letters and words from her ranch. Instead of a rainbow, she only sees a bow. Will she catch the sneaky word rustler? A thoroughly delightful adventure!

 

The Great Dictionary Caper by Judy Sierra, illustrated by Eric Comstock

What a Wonderful Word: A Collection of Untranslatable Words From Around the World by Nicola Edwards, illustrated by Luisa Uribe

Budding wordsmiths will love reading these unique words that don’t translate into other languages. Words like the Icelandic “gluggavedur” which means “window weather”, “weather that looks beautiful while you’re inside, but is much to cold when you step outside.” I especially love the Japanese word “nakama” that means “friends who are like family”.  Each word is defined and illustrated with text that explains further context and meaning.

 

 

The Word Collector by Peter H. Reynolds

Get inspired by this book about a boy named Jerome who loves words so much that he collects them! As he collects, Jerome notices the beauty of pairing words unexpectedly. Then, he realizes that he must share the words with the whole world. Use this beautiful book to inspire your own word collections. Added to: Mentor Texts for Word Choice

 

 

Betty’s Burgled Bakery An Alliteration Adventure by Travis Nichols

It’s both hilarious and impressive to read a mystery adventure written in alliterative sentences. Betty has enlisted the help of the police to solve the crime of who burgled her bakery. And you’ll never believe who did it!! Sure to be a new read-aloud favorite, especially for teachers to use in writing workshop.

 

Top Dog and Other Doggone Delightful Expressions by Carli Davidson

You don’t have to be a dog or wordplay lover to enjoy this fun book that gives you all lots of dog-ish expressions with photos of the cutest dogs EVER. “Working like a dog. / Raining Cats and Dogs. / Dog and Pony Show.” Each page is framable because these photographs are stunning! Added to Favorite Dog Books for Kids.

 

Word Play by Ivan Brunetti

In this simple graphic novel picture book, a teacher helps her students learn about compound words. The kids excitedly think of lots of compound words even at home.

 

E-mergency by Tom Lichtenheld, illustrated by Ezra Fields-Meyer

This punny wordplay picture book is hilarious! When E takes a tumble down the stairs,  in order for E to heal, everyone must stop using the letter E in all their words. O (who is so well-rounded) takes her place making this book hilarious and quite challenging to read out loud! AftOr all, wO usO thO lOttOr a lot! But, E doesn’t heal. Maybe someone still using the letter E? Like THE NARRATOR!?

Take Away the A by Michael Escoffier, illustrated by Kris Di Giacomo
What happens when you remove the letter A? Well, beast becomes best. How about the letter D? Dice becomes ice.  Super funny wordplay with an unexpected plot!

Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster by Debra Frasier

When a cold results in a hilarious and embarrassing misunderstanding of words, readers experience the fun of language, especially synonyms.

 

The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter, illustrated by Giselle Potter
This beautiful picture book swells, sparkles, and percolates with Selig’s (also called Wordsworth’s) passion for words. “You too may find yourself lucky if, one day, while you are thinking or writing or simply speaking, the perfect word just seems to come to you.  If so, you’ll know that Selig is near.” 

Alphabetter by Linda Ragsdale, illustrated by Martina Hogan

You’ll love this playful alphabet picture book full of positive, fun invented words that are combinations of other words. What will you find on the C page? How about choolo (choose + love) and charvelous (charming + marvelous). Sure to inspire many playful inventions of your own as well as new additions to your everyday vocabulary.

 

Noah Webster’s Fighting Words by Tracy Nelson Maurer, illustrated by Mircea Catusanu

This biographical story is an important piece of American history that kids should know — the history of the Webster dictionary. The narrative includes “edits” from Noah Webster himself which make this lively story even more interesting. The illustrations are absolutely perfect — in style and in color. Bravo for organizing words, Mr. Webster!

 

Ann and Nan are Anagrams: A Mixed-Up Word Dilemma by Mark Shulman & Adam McCauley
Anagrams are words that when mixed up spell different words or phrases using all the letters. The authors make it easy to tell which are anagrams by putting the anagrams in similar fonts and tell the story of a mixed-up word world. Don’t you think this would be a fantastic book for an elementary classroom?
“Bring me to your AUNT. She’s A NUT.”
“Poor Grandma! What a VILE, EVIL way to LIVE.”

 

 

The Dictionary of Difficult Words by Jane Solomon, illustrated by Louise Lockhart
Want a mesmerizing wordplay book that is even better than a word-a-day calendar? This oversized dictionary contains the coolest selection of 400 words that kids will love to learn beginning with abecedarian (someone who is learning the alphabet) continuing to Zeppelin. Each letter gives readers about 15 new words to learn. This includes the word, pronunciation, part of speech, and definition. You’ll find haberdashery, ichthyologist, luddite and mugwump, mulligrubs, mumpsimus, and mishpocha. Read one of these words (or more) every day. Then try to use it at least a few times in a sentence. It won’t be too onerous and you won’t be ramfeezled; in fact, learning new words might just be a salubrious experience because you’ll soon become a sesquipedalian.

You Love Ewe by Cece Bell
If you love words, wordplay, and silliness, this will be your new favorite picture book! An enthusiastic and loveable but oblivious donkey misunderstands what Yam is telling him about Ewe and thing Yam is talking about him. (You, in this case.) Eventually, Yam explains about homonyms but those make Donkey mixed up, too. “Hummanums? I thought they was called critters!” I LOVE this book!

Start Your Own Word Collections

There are multiple ways to begin your own collections. Find a special container such as an empty jar like you see above.

Cut out words you LOVE in magazines.

Write down words that INTEREST you on note cards.

Be on the lookout for UNUSUAL words in signs. Take photos.

Use sticky notes to write down FAVORITE and WONDERFUL words in the stories you read — picture books or chapter books.

Keep organized with a notebook or container.

Use Your Wonderful Words

Make up silly words of your own! Take two words and combine them together.

Write found poetry using your new words.

Play these five favorite wordplay games!

What are your favorite things to do with words?

You Might Also Like:

Picture Books About Libraries and Librarians

Daily Poetry for Kids

Oddly Obvious Word Game for Kids (That We Love)

Picture Books That Teach Grammar, Figurative Language, and Punctuation