Description
Noah Webster’s Fighting Words is a delightful and informative book for people of all ages. With her playful text, Tracy Nelson Maurer invites the reader to turn the pages and learn more about one of our lesser-known founding fathers. I love the “editing” that the ghostly Noah Webster does to the text, especially when he tries to give a better impression of himself than what the author had written! Webster was not particularly well-liked during his time, and the author’s words, some borrowed from his contemporaries, describe him as being bossy, an “incurable lunatic” and a “spiteful viper”. Despite these sentiments expressed by some, Webster also had many redeeming qualities. Appropriately, Maurer uses a rich vocabulary to describe Webster’s life. The collage illustrations by Mircea Catusanu strike a good balance between playfulness and the serious nature of this historical figure.
Because of my background as an educator, I found myself thinking about the many ways that this book could be used to help students make connections to both the historical and modern worlds. (By the way, this book is appropriate for much older students than what the description states.) The teacher could lead a discussion about child mortality (one of Webster’s children died in infancy) during Colonial Times, compare it to today, and elicit ideas from the students about why those numbers have changed. Or the class might make a collective list of American vs. British spellings of words. What does it mean to “fight with a pen”? Webster was an early proponent of copyright laws. How does that affect people today? There are so many possibilities! A wealth of information is available at the end of the book, including both an author’s and illustrator’s note, timeline and primary sources. Whether read by an individual, or employed as a read-aloud, this book is a perfect addition to any study of Colonial Times, the American Revolution or the English language.
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