The Very Inappropriate Word by Jim Tobin (review)

Michael loves words, loves them so much that he collects them and keeps them in a box under his bed. His logophilic tendencies get him into trouble, however, when he collects a rather inappropriate word on the bus (uttered by a student examining his report card). Michael starts telling other kids about the word, an act that eventually lands him in after-school detention; Michael's teacher cleverly then asks him to look for new spelling words for her in the library, and Michael's stacks of new words drive the inappropriate one from his mind. Listeners are likely to be more drawn to the mystique of a naughty word (and subsequently disappointed that it is never in fact revealed) than the joys of building a robust vocabulary, and the entertaining concept subsequently falls short, turning instead to focus on the adult problem. The text shifts from prose to verse in the library section, and the transition is somewhat startling and the rhyme forced despite the creative highlighting of Michael's found words ("words underwater/ words in the sky/ words underground/ words that spy/ words that fight/ words that sing/ words for doing crazy things"). Cartoonist Coverly plays fast and free with the abstract elements of the tale, and the art breathes life into the idea of collecting words, ranging from the literal (the word "squeegee" printed on a squeegee) to the metaphorical (a word bubble says "ditto" to a word bubble that says "ditto"; a word bubble with a black eye reads "fisticuffs"). There's an appealingly sophisticated, scribbly edge to the line and watercolor art, and an abundance of hatch lines (the inappropriate word's text bubble is one big scratchy mess) add energy to the spreads. This may be a lively addition to a language arts lesson or simply an entertaining celebration of words, appropriate and otherwise.