The Word Snoop
Ursula Dubosarsky

This was a disappointing result of what was a clever and interesting idea. The book is formatted as private intelligence letters to the reader. At the end of each chapter there is a "crack the code" that relates to the chapter just finished. The premise is fun and engaging, however the delivery is less than fulfilling. There were many places where the author uses a dictionary-like description of a concept or term and then the example she gives does not follow the rule. For example: Using palindromes as the theme, words that are spelled the same forward and backward, she wrote for her example: TAHT YAS OT YPPAH YREV M'I. Not in fact a palindrome. On another occasion; Using lipogram, "more or less the opposite of [a pangram]. Instead of including every letter, you deliberately leave out a particular letter." and used the example, "For many days following, all boys and girls who had brought lollipops for lunch got a gold star." A lipogram of the letter 'e'. All words, but none including the letter 'e'. However, in the code at the end of the chapter, she uses this: "REAE AN ASTARLY COES" which she claims to be a lipogram of the letter 'd'. (DREADED AND DASTARDLY CODES.) It is not in fact a lipogram based on her own description. There were many other blatant errors throughout the book which is sad to see in what is portrayed to be an informative piece, especially finding out that she has a PhD in English Literature. As for the style of writing, I did enjoy it. She has a very easy fluidity to her sentences that would appeal to the most basic of readers. You don't need to be scholarly to read this book, it is meant to be fun and entertaining. Unfortunately, you don't get as much out of it because much of the information is false. Learning that 2+1=5 may be fun in the right setting, but it is still wrong.