“Once upon a time, words began to vanish from the language of children. They disappeared so quietly that at first almost no one noticed—fading away like water on a stone.” (Quartzy)
I've been wondering how to describe this wonderful book, full of gorgeous art and lovely poems. When I saw an article about it on Brain Pickings, I was enthralled--and ordered it immediately. The Lost Words: A Spell Book by Robert McFarlane and Jackie Morris came about when the Oxford children's dictionary dropped words related to nature and replaced them with words like broadband, celebrity, chat room, blog, and bullet point. Words like otter, dandelion, and wren were omitted. The information below is from the Brain Pickings article.
"In early 2015, when the 10,000-entry Oxford children’s dictionary dropped around fifty words related to nature — words like fern, willow, and starling — in favor of terms like broadband and cut and paste, some of the world’s most prominent authors composed an open letter of protest and alarm at this impoverishment of children’s vocabulary and its consequent diminishment of children’s belonging to and with the natural world."
And now there is an album!
It sounds like a delightful book!
ReplyDeleteIt is! A pleasure to look at and to read. :)
DeleteI have this book, it is beautiful, I find it difficult to believe that all this everyday life is being eradicated from the dictionary.
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to believe, isn't it Replacing otter and dandelion with bullet choice and celebrity is disheartening.
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