I love etymology and I try to make my ESL students understand how etymology will help them make connections between words, so I think this book would be an interesting addition to my classroom library.

I love a good, nerdy word book! For any kid who has read the dictionary, excelled at spelling bees, or just has an innate curiosity about words, this is a book for them. I also think it is a great book to get kids interested in words and writing too.

Once Upon a Word: A Word-Origin Dictionary for Kids—Building Vocabulary Through Etymology, Definitions & Stories by Jess Zafarris shows readers of all ages that the English language is made up of words from different places, events, and periods of time. Each of those words has an exciting story to tell us about where, when, how, and why they came about. It has easy-to-understand definitions and awesome word-origin stories, helping readers understand the history and meaning of English words, improve vocabulary and spelling, and learn to play with language. Explore how weird words like gnome, fun words like zombie, and common words like caterpillar came to exist. Discover why some words sound funnier than others (like cackle, sizzle, and twang) and why some groups of words start with the same few letters (like hydrate, hydrogen, and fire hydrant).

Once Upon a Word is an accessible and entertaining resource for readers of all ages. I like that it uses the history of words, the building blocks of words, and how different languages have created and continue to change the English language. After the rundown on the building blocks and things that have shaped language starts the actually dictionary part of the book- explaining each word in detail. This is a great tool for gaining a better understanding of favorite or interesting words, but it is not the most entertaining part. I really enjoyed the two sections that follow, which explore food and music related words. Since food and music are two of my favorite things I found this to be very interesting. I think that this would be a good classroom or school library resource for middle grade readers and older. However, it might also be helpful to those approaching the high school horrors of standardized tests that seem to be very important to their adults. The understanding of the roots and building blocks of words that are laid out in the beginning of the book can help all readers with their vocabulary and the ability to guess the correct meaning of most words- especially in a multiple choice test. I thought that some of the color and formatting choices really broke up the text on the pages nicely, making the read book as a whole less intimidating to readers.

Once Upon a Word is a well organized and written resources that will help its readers understand some of the building blocks and influences of the English language while offering some humor and interesting tidbits along the way.

The information in this book is the sort that the kids who win the national spelling bee understand. The kind of thing that I never learned in school. Once you understand word roots, prefixes and suffixes, you've made great strides t wards parsing out what most any word means and how to pronounce and spell it. Probably two thirds of this book is a dictionary, which is less useful. THe charts though are excellent.

Perfect for kids who have an interest in words, especially those involved in a spelling or vocabulary bee. I received a digital review copy through NetGalley.

As a child, I was a dictionary nerd. Loved to read it to discover new words and their meanings. I really enjoyed reading the word meanings and pronunciations. Reading about the history of words really added another dimension to understanding. It could also add to the current phenomenon of urban words and their meanings. This book would bring tremendous educational benefits to students (and a few adults). This book is one that every student should have at home to refer to while reading and writing assignments from 6th-12th grades. Since the information contained within is invaluable, this book should also be a required reference in every public library.
I received an advanced reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for my volunteer review.

This is a fun and helpful book for better understanding the meaning of words. It has charts of Greek and Latin roots, as well as, charts of prefixes and suffixes. There are also dictionaries of where words come from. This book will be a good recourse for our homeschooling family. Thank you NetGalley for a complimentary arc to review.