Picture Books - Kenya’s Word

Kenya’s Word by Linda Trice and illustrated by Pamela Johnson 2006

Let’s just be honest here, if you can get by the tarantula on the cover and first few pages then you are in for a delightful story. At first when looking at the title I thought it said Kenya’s World, but when I sat down to read it was when I noticed it said Word not World. Words are a very big part of this book, adjectives to be precise. Kenya is a young girl who loves many things. As she sits in class her teacher gives out their word assignment, but Kenya is too busy thinking about other things and only hears part of the instructions. When Kenya presents her describing word assignment chaos tends to ensue. Fortunately for Kenya she has an understanding teacher. Now, Kenya is determined to do well on the next describing word assignment.

Over the weekend she discovers that words can describe so many things and she likes them all, but she has to decide on one favorite word to present to her class. Kenya finally chooses her favorite and it surprises the class and her teacher. Once she explains why it is her favorite word it all makes sense. This is not a non-fiction book on adjectives, but it does a very nice job in explaining how words describe things. Kenya is a charming character and we do learn quite a bit about her “world”. Also, the artwork by Johnson really enhances the story as well. At the end of the book there is a question that asks the reader to choose from a list of words and match them to their five senses. It doesn’t have an appearance of being a teaching moment, but rather an amusing little game. I would suggest for ages 7 and up.