Children's Books with wordplay or about characters who like Words & Language

Emmaline and the Bunny by Katherine Hannigan

• Pub Date: 2009
• Grades 1-3 interest 
• On My List: Great Family Read Alouds 
• See also: Nature 
• Cute fable-like story with a lot of wordplay about a girl who longs to connect with animals and nature, but lives in a town that hates anything wild or untidy.

Words with Wings by Nikki Grimes

• Pub Date: 2013
• Grades 4-8 interest
• See also: Divorce 
• Gabby is a daydreamer who loves words and language.

Booked by Kwame Alexander

• Pub Date: 2016
• Grades 5-8 interest
• See also: Books, Divorce 
• Lots of great wordplay in this novel in verse.

Hope is a Ferris Wheel by Robin Herrera

• Pub Date: 2014
• Grades 4-6 interest
• See also: Moving/New Kid 
• The vocabulary assignments that Star completes are a highlight of this novel. 

As Brave as You by Jason Reynolds

• Pub Date: 2016
• Grades 5-8 interest
• See also in Children's: Intergenerational, Research, Divorce, Forbidden Places
• See also in Teen: Extended Family, Guilt 
• Diversity: African-American characters
• Genie is a curious kid with a penchant for making up words.

Sure Signs of Crazy by Karen Harrington

• Pub Date: 2013
• Grades 5-8 interest 
• Coming of age novel set during the summer before 7th grade featuring a young word-lover.

The Way to Bea by Kat Yeh

• Pub Date: 2017
• Grades 5-8 interest
• See also: Starting Middle School, In Verse, Only Child 
• As Bea, a poet, pays a lot of attention to words and how they are used.

Short by Holly Goldberg Sloan

• Pub Date: 2017
• Grades 4-6 interest
• Julia thinks a lot about what words and expressions mean in this story. 

The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

• Pub Date: 2017
• Grades 4-7 Interest
• Ada spends a lot of time thinking about what words mean and looking them up in the dictionary. 

You Go First by Erin Entrada Kelly

• Pub Date: 2018
• Grades 4-6 interest
• See also: Divorce, Multiple Narrators
• Ben and Charlotte love Scrabble.

Blended by Sharon Draper

• Pub Date: 2018
• Grades 4-6 interest
• See also: Divorce, music 
• There's a minor focus on vocabulary words in this book.