Taro Gomi’s Big Book of Words

Gomi (The Crocodile and the Dentist) illustrates this wide-ranging compendium of words and phrases with his signature cartoons, here generally rendered as thumbnail-like drawings. The book’s first section, naming words, details the way that a concept (“flowers”) can also reference a specific thing (“lily”), and notes how a signifier can connote different ideas in different contexts: “A fishmonger calls a fish a product to be sold. A chef calls a fish an ingredient to be cooked.” Other verbiage noted includes things that fly; colors, numbers, and shapes; and “things you can’t see” (various expressions flit across children’s faces: “wind” tosses a child’s hair; “odor” provokes a wide-eyed stare). The title’s second section, conversational language, includes words of greeting and appreciation (“Thank you for your patience”) and many more. An unattributed translation has some stiff moments (fish defined repetitiously for English audiences as both “a dish” and “food”), and a page involving exaggeratedly expressive people dressed in skins naming an elephant “to feel safe” leans more philosophical than categorical. Gomi nevertheless provides a playful nuts-and-bolts look at language as the basis of not just words but ideas. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 3–5. (Mar.)