The Keeper of Wild Words

Description

When Mimi finds out that her favourite words - simple words, like apricot, blackberry, buttercup - are disappearing from the English language, she elects her granddaughter Brook as their Keeper. As Keeper, it's Brook's job to pass on the importance of protecting, loving, and celebrating the natural world. Words, the woods, and the world illuminate this quest to save our language - by saving the very things it stands for. A lyrical, inspiring, heartwarming picture book, The Keeper of Wild Words is an ode to the environment and language itself.

Brooke Smith is a poet and children's book author. She lives in Bend, Oregon, at the end of a long cinder lane. Brooke writes daily from her studio, looking at the meadow and many of the wild words she cherishes. Madeline Kloepper is a children's book illustrator and author. She lives in Prince George, British Columbia, where she enjoys hiking and exploring wild landscapes. She likes the way porcupines waddle and when ferns cover the forest floor.

"[In The Keeper of Wild Words] Kloepper's soft illustrations feature green and brown earth tones that frame the white, matte pages; bursts of red, purple, and other spot colors enliven the scenes. Sensory details allow the protagonist to hear, see, smell, taste, and hold the wild. The last page forms an envelope for readers' own vocabulary collections. Sweet-and savory."--Kirkus Reviews "[T]touching, poetic, noble. The best use of [The Keeper of Wild Words] is to take children out on a nature hunt to collect and/or identify said listed items. Using the large envelope at the end of the book is a good way to make a keepsake of the experience."-School Library Journal