Wumbers

WUMBERS

Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Author

Tom Lichtenheld, Illustrator

Chronicle Books, 2012

Suitable for Ages: 5 – 8

Themes: Words, Numbers, Humor

From the Book Jacket:  What do you get when you combine a word and a number?  A wumber!  Playing tribute to William Steig’s C D B!, book crea8ors Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld have wri10 this s2pendous book that is perfect 4 readers in kindergar10 and up.

Why I like this book:  Rosenthal has written a very creative and clever concept book for children.  It’s words created with numbers.  There is no specific story, just lots of fun word puns with letters substituted with numbers.  Lichtenheld’s illustrations are colorful and give lively visual clues of what is being said.  The characters on each spread have conversations that kids will have fun decoding.  And some of the word/number plays are a bit challenging and will help kids learn a new language.  After all, many kids today are using coding messages as they text messages to their friends.  Good left/right brain entertainment!  For example:

“He pinched my belly but10!”   With Dad responding “I think you’ll sur5.”   (They just do this 4 a10tion.)

He lost his first 2th.  He is el8ed!

We have the 2na salad and the pl8s.  What have we 4gotten?  The 4ks!

Resources:  Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld  have created a teacher’s guide for WUMBERS.   They are the NYT best-selling authors of Duck! Rabbit!, as well as many other children’s books.