WUMBERS

For the unversed, a “wumber” is a word crea8ted using numbers. (Obviously!)

Inspired by the master of wordplay himself, William Steig (C D B!, 1968, and C D C?, 1984), Rosenthal and Lichtenheld’s carefully crafted wumbers certainly hold their own. The scope, ranging from simple and fun (“Would you like some honey 2 swee10 your tea?”) to more difficult vocabulary (“4give me, 4 this is bel8ed, but it seems once again I have overinfla8ed”) covers a wide range of readers. A true testament to phonological awareness—the ability to hear the smaller sounds that make up words—if ever there was one, the wumbers also encourage kids to slow down and think. If mumbling repeatedly out loud does not yield the answer right away, Lichtenheld’s bright pen-and-pastel illustrations will help readers spell it out. In this day and age of text-message shorthand, some linguists may declare this book a disaster (Steig never had to contend with such moral panic), but fear not; the clever wumbers are more likely to intrigue and stimulate, not destroy a child’s ability to spell.

Let’s just hope there are no h8trs.