The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus, by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet

 The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus 

Bibliography 

Bryant, Jen. 2014. The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus. Ill. by Melissa Sweet. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. ISBN 9780802853851. 

Plot Summary 

This book tells the somewhat quirky story of Peter Roget and his love of lists. From an early age, making lists helped him remember what he was learning, and he began to compile a book of lists for his personal use. Finding “the right word” for a feeling or action gave Roget great satisfaction, so over the years he began compiling lists of synonyms. Roget became a doctor at the early age of 19 and also joined science societies in London, among which he became quite a famous lecturer despite being shy. Other people began to publish thesauri, but his children insisted that his book of lists was better, so he improved it and published his Thesaurus a few years later. Now everyone would be able to find “the right word” for any occasion.    

Critical Analysis 

This book incorporates diverse types of writing from free-form poetry to paragraph narratives. The cleverest page arrangement I saw was a simple sentence written as a list of single words while describing Roget’s love of lists. The biographical information was well written and engaging, but the illustrations took center stage. Each page is set up like a scrap book page, with pictures, doodles, and sample lists set up all around the text. A reader can get lost in the information around the story, but in a good way; there were extra details such as people with speech bubbles to illustrate what was discussed in the text, many of which add humor to the pages. One could read this book over and over and find something new within the illustrations each time. 

Review Excerpts 

2015 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal Winner 

2015 Orbis Pictus Award Honor 

2015 Randolph Caldecott Medal Honor 

School Library Journal Starred, 10/1/2014  

Joanna K. Fabicon writes “busy and exuberant, Sweet's charming watercolor illustrations, layered over collages of vintage images and fonts, capture Roget's passion for classification while also providing readers new opportunities for discovery...” 

Publishers Weekly Starred, 7/7/2014 

Alyssa Eisner Henkin writes “together with Bryant’s sympathetic account, Sweet’s gentle riot of images and words humanizes the man behind this ubiquitous reference work and demystifies the thesaurus itself.” 

Connections 

This book is intended for younger elementary school readers, but I quite enjoyed it as an adult as well. Readers may also enjoy Jen Bryant’s and A River of Words : The Story of William Carlos Williams ISBN 9780802853028 and Jerri Chase Ferris’ Noah Webster and his Words ISBN 9780547390550.