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Talbott, Hudson

A Walk in the Words

32 pp. | Penguin/Paulsen | September, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-399-54871-0 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-399-54872-7 $10.99
(2) K-3 "Drawing always came naturally to me," says the protagonist of this autobiographical picture book based on Talbott's early life. Words are another story. Though he loves words "one at a time," long sentences make him feel lost in the woods--a theme picked up by the book's title and by the illustrations' imagery. In the watercolor, colored-pencil, and ink pictures, books fly at him like so many bats or birds of prey; trees are menacingly twisted into and around words; and an entire spread of newsprint becomes a gray, densely packed "Wall of Shame." He feels "alone and lost in a world of words" and worries: what if his classmates find out he can't keep up with them? As he comes up with strategies to forge his own path--reading at his own pace, looking for words he knows and letting them lead him into a story--the illustrations' palette slowly lightens. Then he begins to experiment with how to write stories. He tears down his Wall of Shame and creates a Hall of Fame of slow readers--Einstein and Shakespeare among them. And now the wall carries a new sign: "Slow readers savor the story!" In an appended note, Talbott relates his childhood struggle with dyslexia and how he wrote this story to help others.
Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

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