Word of the Day/The Big Book of Magical Mix-Ups

It's day 5 of our Word of the Day feature here at LitLad. Here's how it works: The boys and I choose a different book every day and they pick a word from it for which they don't know the meaning. They each write the word at night and the next day we try to use it in conversation as much as we can.

Today's word is stubborn, an adjective meaning "refusing to change one's ideas or listen to others' ideas," as in "Johnny Boo was too stubborn to let Tintin choose the word of the day."

And we're reading The Big Book of Magical Mix-Ups, in which one of the many possible combinations of spells is "Squeeze the blood out of a stone, hide the remote control, make a unicorn sneeze and pat a bald man on the head. This will turn a stubborn babysitter into an exploding doughnut."

The Big Book of Magical Mix-Ups
Author/illustrator: Hilary Robinson/Nick Sharratt
Publisher: Scholastic (March 2010)
Source: Half Price Books/home library

This colorful spell book with split pages lets children turn mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, grandparents, babysitters, teachers and friends into food, animals, articles of clothing and more. There are lots of hilarious (and preposterous) combinations for kids to enjoy.

Some books to go along with The Big Book of Magical Mix-Ups, most of which link to Amazon UK (you can also find them through the link to Half Price Books above): The Big Book of Crazy Mix-Ups, Ketchup on Your Cornflakes?, Mixed Up Fairy Tales, A Cheese and Tomato Spider.

An activity to go along with this book: Make your own mix-up book (something we'll try later today if the boys aren't being stubborn about it).

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