The Lost Words

I ordered this just for me, and I'm even more excited about it now I have it. Its larger and heavier than I thought, with beautifully done art. The poems manage to be clever, entertaining, thoughtful and thought-provoking. Not a common combination. I absolutely love the focus on words. Beautiful use of the sounds and the sights of words. Definitely accomplishes its goal of making you fall in love with lost words! And not just for children!

I've seen this book recommended for a long time- I can't believe I waited so long to check it out! I got it through our library and loved it so much I bought it before I even had to return the library book! My 5.5 and 8 yr olds have favorite poems and have naturally memorized a few snippets of several poems. Every time we share one or two with a friend's, the kids keep requesting specific poems until we've shared half the book! I LOVE this book. A note on the end page also directs you to a website with teaching resources on poetry for older kids. I'm so happy to have brought this beautiful language into our home.

I read about this book in The New York Times. It was written to address the sad trend that children no longer know the names of natural plants and animals that live in the world around them. I have noticed this myself. For example, my students refer to all flowers as roses. The don't distinguish between an actual rose and a daisy or a tulip or a daffodil. This book is BEAUTIFUL. The watercolor illustrations are laced with gold and cunningly wrought. It is sort of an alphabet book. Each entry has a nature word, such as "acorn", followed by an acrostic poem and then a lovely painting. In between are pages of context illustrations with lost letters spread about. I love this book! (Some notes: It is larger and heavier than I expected, approximately 11" by 15". It is more of a coffee table book than a children's bedtime story. Not all letters of the alphabet are illustrated. I felt sorry for some of them. The authors are from the UK and the animals chosen reflect that to a small degree.)

My 6 year old daughter has a keen interest in poetry and a love of nature. At a friend's recommendation I purchased this for her as a Christmas gift. It has given us hours of delight; the images are beautiful and detailed and teach lots of thing without the need to explicitly say them. She enjoys finding the "lost word" on each title page and asks questions about words she hears and doesn't know (our new favorite word is "unhirsute"). We've been using this book to learn a few poems for school and they're even simple enough for my 4 year old to recite (Newt! Oh, Newt! You are toooo cute!). The variety of types of poetry in this book was a surprise and I have enjoyed learning the flow of each poem, how best to recite it. An all around truly delightful experience. 10/10 would recommend

Gorgeous book!! 😍 You can get lost in the poems and the beautiful artwork! However it's not convenient to curl up and read with. You really can't visualize 11x14 inches until your propping it up on one hip. It's enormous size makes it difficult to place on a bookshelf. I'm very thankful they reduced the size for their next book and hope they will do more books in the furniture......small ones that is. Lol!!

I bought this book without know a thing about it except for the fact that I love the author. I was also charmed by the cover illustrations. So imagine my amazement and delight when this enormous book arrived on my doorstep! Reading it's geneses, which is far more extensive in one of the reviews, than what is mentioned in the book, makes it all the more delightful. And should I say essential. I am now 70 and grandmother to a one year old child. I have friends who have older grandchildren. Dare I say this is a book no grandparent should be without? Prove me wrong! It's an extraordinary book. Beautiful to look at, to feel, to hold and most importantly, to listen to. Read it. Aloud.

The book itself is quite lovely and well-conceived. At the introduction to each "lost" word are letters, seemingly randomly strewn across two pages, but when you look carefully, you notice that the word in question is printed in different colored letters from the others. Nice touch. The illustrations are just beautiful. I did not, unfortunately, read the size description of the book and was surprised to find it was quite large. Would have preferred a smaller version that is easily shelved, but the quality of the illustrations makes up for it. To see them so vividly in the large format is a pleasure. Can't wait to. share it with my grandchildren. Highly recommend this lovely, lovely book about both the pleasure and tragic loss of words as our world changes. Happily, most of the words included in the book are still with us, though it's easy to see how they can be lost to future generations of children as the world and its fragile climate undergo irreversible change. This is a book to savor again and again.

I bought this for my nephew. This is a large book, with beautiful artwork. My sister and my nephew (8 yrs old) have read it multiple times. The vocabulary is very sophisticated and even I had to look up some of the words. Great book for story time with children.