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"It is a beautiful song. It has been a good day. Everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone has cake."

13 Words by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Maira Kalman. HarperCollins (October 2010); ISBN 9780061664656; 40 pages
Book Source: Review copy from publisher

Word Number 3: Cake. We've consumed a lot of birthday cake this past month. Both kids celebrated their birthdays as well as a couple of their grandparents. That equates to many, many cakes. Lemony Snicket's new picture book, 13 Words, weaves 13 unrelated words together. Cake (word #3) is one of the more usual words in the book, and my daughter's favorite of the entire list. The other 12 words (some normal, some not) are:

Bird • Despondent • Dog • Busy • Convertible • Goat • Hat • Haberdashery • Scarlet • Baby • Panache • Mezzo-Soprano

Now, I imagine you are wondering how all those words fit together in a story. Truth be told, this isn't at all an ordinary book. In fact, it is very odd. But, with Lemony Snicket as the author, one doesn't expect something ordinary! The story starts out with a despondent bird. The poor blue bird is sad, very sad, so a dog does his best to cheer her up, with the help of a convertible driving goat and song-spinning mezzo-soprano. After an eventful day involving hats and more, they all eat cake. The book ends with a quote by Albert Einstein, "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."

Maira Kalman’s whimsical illustrations add to the quirkiness. The humor found in the pictures is just as strange and funny as the text, but the illustrations also convey a much deeper feeling of loneliness and sadness. Underneath a dark rain cloud, a despondent bird sits perched on top a can of mushy peas right next to a book by Kafka? Unusual, yes?

I found the book extremely intriguing. It is both simple and complex at the same time, and school-aged and adult readers will enjoy drawing their own conclusions about the story. My daughter loved learning a few new words and also liked that the book also used some "easy words" for beginning readers. And, of course, a big thumbs up for all the cake, especially the birthday cake with six candles!



Lately we've spent a lot of time exploring words. With a beginning reader in the house, our goal is to foster a love of language and of words. 13 Words provides a fun way to show how random words can connect together to form a story. It is indeed, like the publicity release indicates, "a launch pad for creative minds of all ages."

Even though we've received plenty of snow this winter, we still haven't had the chance to build a snowman. The cold weather and a few illnesses have put a wrench in our outdoor play. But there's plenty of winter left to build a snowman, so there's still hope. In the meantime, we'll have to remain content with reading about the white creations and imagining what would happen if one came to life.

The Snowman by Raymond Briggs; Random House (November 1978); ISBN 9780394839738

The Snowman by Raymond Briggs is quite possibly one of the most famous children's books to feature a snowman. A series of small frames on each page tell the tale in this wordless picture book about the adventures of a little boy and his snowman. The softly hued illustrations are action filled and my kids really enjoy narrating the sequence of events.

A little boy wakes up to a snowy morning and runs outside to build a snowman. Later that night, the snowman comes to life. The little boy invites the snowman inside and they explore the boy's home. They do many things together--they switch the lights off and on, eat ice, the snowman tries on some clothes, they skateboards around the house and they even eat a snack. The snowman returns the kindness by taking the boy back outdoors for a magical nighttime flying adventure. Morning arrives and the boy must say goodbye to his friend.

My toddler son enjoyed paging through this book...that is until the last page. He wasn't fond of the ending. However, it gave us the opportunity to discuss snowmen and talk about how they don't last forever. The sun is a powerful foe. We found a few things interesting in the book. The boy doesn't design a typical three-ball snowman. His snowman is made from two segments and has arms and carved legs. Also, there's a little geography in the book. The boy and snowman fly over the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, England.

We own a lift-the-flap version of The Snowman and it ends happily. Perhaps that is why my little guy was shocked after finally reading the original version. He was expecting it to end like his board book version. In fact, several editions and versions of The Snowman exist and not all are wordless. The online reviews for all the books are combined together, making it difficult to determine what to expect if you purchase something other than the original. Here's our review of the Nifty Lift-and-Look Book Series version: