Dictionary for a Better World by Irene Latham and Charles Waters - ADVISABLE

Dictionary for a Better World by Irene Latham and CharlesWaters, 109 pages. POETRY. Carolrhoda Books, 2020. $20.

Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: G; Violence: G

BUYING ADVISORY: MS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Latham and Waters offer 50 poems, each with a quote and an anecdote, based on principles and characteristics that will improve our world when applied. Individuals have to change before the world as a whole can become better.

My favorite parts of this book are the parts that are not advertised as part of the poem collection: each poem comes with a new literary device or poem style to learn and an invitation for the reader to start applying the introduced principle. Latham and Waters teach by example through their poems and anecdotes and then give readers another example of how to start emulating the characteristics now -- today! While this isn’t the type of book one typically sits down to read cover to cover, even flipping through a few pages has the potential to change a reader’s perspective of the world.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen