Here are 63 books that The Word Collector fans have personally recommended if you like The Word Collector. Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Seven Silly Eaters

Heather Hartt-Sussman Author Of Noni Says No

From my list on picture books parents will love.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have written seven picture books, one of which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and many of which have been award nominees. My books have been translated into five languages and are enjoyed by kids from Denmark to Korea. As a mom, I know that when a child loves a book they want it read to them repeatedly. That’s why I admire books that are written for the enjoyment of both the adult and the child. I dislike preachy books filled with lessons. I prefer when books entertain and contain a nugget of gold that readers can take with them when the book is done.

Heather's book list on picture books parents will love

Heather Hartt-Sussman Why Heather loves this book

I love this book as a parent because it is a joy to read. Its rhyme is sheer perfection (which is hard to pull off) and the conclusion is pure genius, as Hoberman deftly weaves a tapestry out of seemingly random strings. This is a hilarious book about a mother who grows more and more weary from the demands of her seven children and their very particular and fussy eating habits. This kitchen-bound, short-order-chef hero of a mom gets a lovely surprise at the end that makes all the chaos seem worth it. Kids will giggle, moms (or dads or other caregivers) will relate.

By Mary Ann Hoberman , Marla Frazee (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Seven Silly Eaters as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

A funny picture book about solving—finally!—a growing family's picky-eater problem!

Peter wants only milk, Lucy won’t settle for anything but homemade lemonade, and Jack is stuck on applesauce...

Each new addition to the household brings a new demand for a special meal. What’s a mother to do?

"A highly comic rhyming romp that surprisingly (and nicely) twists into a birthday story.” —School Library Journal

"Hoberman's riotous tale is spun like a Seussian fable." —New York Times Book Review


If you love The Word Collector...

Book cover of Stella's Special Recipe

Stella's Special Recipe by Melissa Stoller,

It’s Rosh Hashanah, and Stella is finally old enough to make her family’s famous stuffed cabbage rolls. The recipe has been passed down from her Bubbe Sophie to her Nana to her Mama, with each adding their own special ingredient and a little bit of love. Now it’s Stella’s turn.…

Book cover of The Day the Crayons Quit

Lou Kuenzler Author Of Calm Down, Zebra

From my list on artistic expression.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a children’s writer I have to draw on my own creativity, celebrate my own ideas and quash self-doubt every time I work on a story. I teach creative writing, run workshops, and visit schools regularly – above all, I want to instill courage and the love of bold imagination in children. Picture book age children have such fantastic creativity and joyous wonder at the world around them. How wonderful to see that creative energy reflected back in a story which will hopefully spark more journeys into wonderful invented places, spaces, pictures, and tales. Imagination has brought me such great joy, I hope I can pass a spark of that onwards...

Lou's book list on artistic expression

Lou Kuenzler Why Lou loves this book

A glorious, mini rebellion of colour and newfound artistic freedom. This deservedly popular picture book is as smart and funny as the youngsters it is aimed at. Each new character we meet is wonderfully individual and uniquely creative. A rainbow of inspiration! Who knew we could care about crayons so much? Bliss!

By Drew Daywalt , Oliver Jeffers (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Day the Crayons Quit as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 3, 4, 5, and 6.

What is this book about?

The Number One New York Times Bestseller!

Debut author Drew Daywalt and international bestseller Oliver Jeffers team up to create a colourful solution to a crayon-based crisis in this playful, imaginative story that will have children laughing and playing with their crayons in a whole new way.

Poor Duncan just wants to colour in. But when he opens his box of crayons, he only finds letters, all saying the same thing: We quit!

Beige is tired of playing second fiddle to Brown, Blue needs a break from colouring in all that water, while Pink just wants to…


Book cover of Waiting Is Not Easy!

Heather Hartt-Sussman Author Of Noni Says No

From my list on picture books parents will love.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have written seven picture books, one of which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and many of which have been award nominees. My books have been translated into five languages and are enjoyed by kids from Denmark to Korea. As a mom, I know that when a child loves a book they want it read to them repeatedly. That’s why I admire books that are written for the enjoyment of both the adult and the child. I dislike preachy books filled with lessons. I prefer when books entertain and contain a nugget of gold that readers can take with them when the book is done.

Heather's book list on picture books parents will love

Heather Hartt-Sussman Why Heather loves this book

Any impatient adult or child will tell you that waiting is indeed not for the faint of heart. In this book, which is a part of the early reader Elephant and Piggie series, Piggie has a surprise for Gerald the Elephant. But he must wait for it, and wait and wait and wait. As he waits, Gerald’s groans grow louder, illustrated typographically with ever-enlarging speech bubbles. The ending shows previously frustrated Gerald the Elephant proclaiming that the surprise was well worth the wait. And indeed it is!!

By Mo Willems ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Waiting Is Not Easy! as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 6, 7, 8, and 9.

What is this book about?

Gerald is careful. Piggie is not.
Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.
Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to.

Gerald and Piggie are best friends.

In Waiting Is Not Easy!, Piggie has a surprise for Gerald, but he is going to have to wait for it. And Wait. And wait some more...


If you love Peter H. Reynolds...

Book cover of Stella's Special Recipe

Stella's Special Recipe by Melissa Stoller,

It’s Rosh Hashanah, and Stella is finally old enough to make her family’s famous stuffed cabbage rolls. The recipe has been passed down from her Bubbe Sophie to her Nana to her Mama, with each adding their own special ingredient and a little bit of love. Now it’s Stella’s turn.…

Book cover of The Incredible Book Eating Boy

Diego Vaisberg Author Of Dino

From my list on album books to unleash your children´s imagination.

Why am I passionate about this?

I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I'm the head behind DGPH illustration and design studio. I'm also an illustration professor of the illustrator major at Palermo University (UP). My passion for kids books and illustration turned me into a full time illustrator combining both passions, illustration, and design. And with time, I started writing my own stories too.

Diego's book list on album books to unleash your children´s imagination

Diego Vaisberg Why Diego loves this book

The pages are filled with things to discover, it's one of those books that you will read and start over to find things hidden amongst the pages. The quirky lines makes the main character really nice for kids, resembling how they draw their own characters. And the story gives a really nice message about how fulfilling reading can be.

By Oliver Jeffers ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Incredible Book Eating Boy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

The mouth-watering new book from acclaimed author illustrator, Oliver Jeffers.

Henry loves books... but not like you and I. He loves to EAT books! This exciting story follows the trials and tribulations of a boy with a voracious appetite for books.

Henry discovers his unusual taste by mistake one day, and is soon swept up in his new-found passion - gorging on every delicious book in sight! And better still, he realises that the more books he eats, the smarter he gets. Henry dreams of becoming the Incredible Book Eating Boy; the smartest boy in the world!


Book cover of The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics

Alejandra Bronfman Author Of Isles of Noise: Sonic Media in the Caribbean

From my list on sound and why you should care about it.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been doing research in the Caribbean for twenty-five years. The region is diverse and magnificent. Caribbean people have sought creative solutions for racial inequality, climate and sustainability, media literacy and information, women’s and family issues. The transnational connections with the US are complex and wide-ranging, and knowing more about this region is an urgent matter. I work to understand how sound and media work because they structure our reality in important ways. Listening as a way of approaching relationships in work and play is key to our survival. So is understanding how media works, where we get our information from, and how to tell what’s relevant, significant, and true, and what is not. 

Alejandra's book list on sound and why you should care about it

Alejandra Bronfman Why Alejandra loves this book

Cassette tapes of Muslim sermons played by taxi drivers in Cairo set the stage for this profound investigation of the intersection of sound, spiritualism, and technology. The tapes, Hirschkind argues, are not mechanisms for social control as much as jumping-off points for Muslims to find their way towards ethical self-improvement. 

By Charles Hirschkind ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Ethical Soundscape as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Charles Hirschkind's unique study explores how a popular Islamic media form--the cassette sermon--has profoundly transformed the political geography of the Middle East over the last three decades. An essential aspect of what is now called the Islamic Revival, the cassette sermon has become omnipresent in most Middle Eastern cities, punctuating the daily routines of many men and women. Hirschkind shows how sermon tapes have provided one of the means by which Islamic ethical traditions have been recalibrated to a modern political and technological order--to its noise and forms of pleasure and boredom, but also to its political incitements and call…


Book cover of Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, from the Afronet to Black Lives Matter

Joanne McNeil Author Of Lurking: How a Person Became a User

From my list on the origins of the tech industry.

Why am I passionate about this?

Joanne McNeil has written about internet culture for over fifteen years. Her book considers the development of the internet from a user's perspective since the launch of the World Wide Web. Her interest in digital technology spans from the culture that enabled the founding of major companies in Silicon Valley to their reception in broader culture.

Joanne's book list on the origins of the tech industry

Joanne McNeil Why Joanne loves this book

Black software, McIlwain writes, “refers to the programs we desire and design computers to run. It refers to who designs the program, for what purposes, and what or who becomes its object and data.” The book is a much needed examination of the role that Black entrepreneurs, engineers, designers, and users contributed in building the internet.

By Charlton D. McIlwain ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Black Software as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Activists, pundits, politicians, and the press frequently proclaim today's digitally mediated racial justice activism the new civil rights movement. As Charlton D. McIlwain shows in this book, the story of racial justice movement organizing online is much longer and varied than most people know. In fact, it spans nearly five decades and involves a varied group of engineers, entrepreneurs, hobbyists, journalists, and activists. But this is a history that is virtually
unknown even in our current age of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Black Lives Matter.

Beginning with the simultaneous rise of civil rights and computer revolutions in the 1960s, McIlwain,…


Book cover of The Instruction of Imagination: Language as a Social Communication Technology

Michael C. Corballis Author Of Adventures of a Psychologist: Reflections on What Made Up the Mind

From my list on the mind (how it works and where it came from).

Why am I passionate about this?

Michael Corballis is a psychologist and brain scientist. His interests lie in how the mind works, how it maps onto the brain, and how it evolved. Much of his work is published in books and scientific articles, but he has also written books aimed at a general readership. These include Pieces of Mind, The Lopsided Ape, The Recursive Mind, The Wandering Mind, and The Truth about Language.

Michael's book list on the mind (how it works and where it came from)

Michael C. Corballis Why Michael loves this book

For more than half a century, the science and philosophy of language have been dominated by Noam Chomsky, who holds that language depends on an innate, uniquely human capacity to generate complex structures. In this view, language is an aspect of thought, and communication is of little interest or relevance. In his own words, Daniel Dor “turns Chomsky on his head,” so that communication itself becomes the focus. Language is a means of expression, collectively invented by our ancient forebears, to go where the senses do not go—into our minds. This book should help transform our understanding of language as a practical technology rather than a biological oddity.

By Daniel Dor ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Instruction of Imagination as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The book suggests a new perspective on the essence of human language. This enormous achievement of our species is best characterized as a communication technology - not unlike the social media on the Net today - that was collectively invented by ancient humans for a very particular communicative function: the instruction of imagination. All other systems of communication in the biological world target the interlocutors' senses; language allows speakers to
systematically instruct their interlocutors in the process of imagining the intended meaning - instead of directly experiencing it. This revolutionary function has changed human life forever, and in the book…


Book cover of The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of the Haitian Revolution

Christian Høgsbjerg Author Of Toussaint Louverture: A Black Jacobin in the Age of Revolutions

From my list on Toussaint Louverture and his impact on the world.

Why am I passionate about this?

When we are thinking of the origins or roots of contemporary movements like #BlackLivesMatter, the Haitian Revolution represents a foundational, inspirational moment but one of also wider world-historical impact and importance – ‘the only successful slave revolt in history’ – and so as the most outstanding leader to emerge during that revolutionary upheaval Toussaint Louverture will always retain relevance and iconic significance. I've had an interest in Toussaint and the Haitian Revolution ever since undertaking my doctorate on how the black Trinidadian revolutionary historian C.L.R. James came to write his classic history of the Haitian Revolution. I currently teach history, including the history of Atlantic slavery and abolition, in the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Brighton. 

Christian's book list on Toussaint Louverture and his impact on the world

Christian Høgsbjerg Why Christian loves this book

Taking as its title a line from the sonnet William Wordsworth wrote in 1802 in honour of the then imprisoned Toussaint Louverture, Julius S Scott’s work – like that of Carolyn Fick – gives us a powerful sense of just how revolutionary the Haitian Revolution was. Focusing on how sailors, runaway slaves, soldiers, and others spread revolutionary ideas of the Radical Enlightenment across the Caribbean during the 1790s, Scott gives us another brilliant ‘history from below’, full of inspiring examples of internationalism. Leaders of other slave revolts across the Caribbean took on names like ‘Toussaint’, while even the English radical Thomas Paine came to inspire Francophone blacks in this period – such as the imprisoned ‘John Paine’ detained by British authorities in colonial Jamaica in 1793.

By Julius S. Scott ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Common Wind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Common Wind is a gripping and colorful account of the intercontinental networks that tied together the free and enslaved masses of the New World. Having delved deep into the gray obscurity of official eighteenth-century records in Spanish, English, and French, Julius S. Scott has written a powerful "history from below." Scott follows the spread of "rumors of emancipation" and the people behind them, bringing to life the protagonists in the slave revolution.
By tracking the colliding worlds of buccaneers, military deserters, and maroon communards from Venezuela to Virginia, Scott records the transmission of contagious mutinies and insurrections in unparalleled…


Book cover of Planet

Charlene Spretnak Author Of Relational Reality: New Discoveries of Interrelatedness That Are Transforming the Modern World

From my list on dynamic interrelatedness among people and with nature.

Why am I passionate about this?

My formative immersion in nature during eleven summers at a girls’ camp in the Hocking Hills of southeastern Ohio showed me that everything in the physical world, including humans, is dynamically interrelated at subtle levels. As an adult, I’ve followed post-mechanistic sciences that explore this invisible truth, a theme that runs through several books I have written. Since the early 2000s, a new wave of discoveries, this time in human biology, reveals that we are composed entirely of dynamic interrelationships, in and around us, which affect us continuously from conception to our last breath. These discoveries are quickly being applied in many areas. I call this new awareness the Relational Shift. 

Charlene's book list on dynamic interrelatedness among people and with nature

Charlene Spretnak Why Charlene loves this book

Our mental health has been compromised and the overall health of the planet destroyed because the mechanistic worldview of modernity has long assured us that we live apart from nature, more or less on top of it. This book—actually a boxed set of five short paperbacks: Planet, Place, Partners, Persons, Practiceis a beautiful, deeply engaging antidote to modern alienation. The focus is on memoirs and storytelling because sharing stories is the way we humans make sense of the vast interrelatedness that is our reality. The aim here is a fuller understanding of Kinship Writ Large and the ways in which each of us can become better kin. The wise co-editors who chose these pieces include Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of the acclaimed book Braiding Sweetgrass.

By Gavin Van Horn (editor) , Robin Wall Kimmerer (editor) , John Hausdoerffer (editor)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Planet as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

*Part of the 5-Volume Set 2022 Nautilus Book Award Gold Medal Winner: Ecology & Environment and Special Honors as Best of Anthology

Volume 1 of the Kinship series revolves around the question of planetary relations: What are the sources of our deepest evolutionary and planetary connections, and of our profound longing for kinship?

We live in an astounding world of relations. We share these ties that bind with our fellow humans-and we share these relations with nonhuman beings as well. From the bacterium swimming in your belly to the trees exhaling the breath you breathe, this community of…


Book cover of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations about Race

Christia Spears Brown Author Of Unraveling Bias: How Prejudice Has Shaped Children for Generations and Why It's Time to Break the Cycle

From my list on raising bias-free kids.

Why am I passionate about this?

Christia Spears Brown is an author, researcher, and professor of Developmental Psychology. She is also the Director of the Center for Equality and Social Justice at the University of Kentucky. She earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin. Brown began her academic career on the faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles. Her research focuses on how children develop gender and ethnic stereotypes, how children understand gender and ethnic discrimination, and how discrimination and stereotypes affect children and teens’ lives. As part of her research on discrimination, she also examines the perpetration and acceptance of sexual harassment and how children understand politics, public policies, and societal inequalities.

Christia's book list on raising bias-free kids

Christia Spears Brown Why Christia loves this book

This classic book, which has been recently updated, is a must-read for all parents or people who work with children. Tatum does an excellent job of describing how children think about race and the role race plays in their lives. She describes how racial identity develops for Black children, for White children, and for mixed-race children and clearly identifies why it is important for all children. By using lots of quotes and conversations with children and teens, this accessible read leads to “Aha!” moments in every chapter. 

By Beverly Daniel Tatum ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This well-balanced book, written in lively prose, brings new insights and a fresh perspective to this frequent query and the issue of racial identity development.. There is a moment when every child leaves color-blindness behind and enters the world of race consciousness. At that moment, there are two roads parents, educators, and therapists can take: they can follow the status quo, internalizing racial expectations, and becomeconsciously or unconsciouslypart of the problem. Or, they can question stereotypes, and, actively work against racism to become part of the solution. This book provides the tools we all need to become part of the…


Book cover of The Seven Silly Eaters
Book cover of The Day the Crayons Quit
Book cover of Waiting Is Not Easy!

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Interested in vocabulary, the NAACP, and French travel?

Vocabulary 12 books
The NAACP 9 books
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