The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus

Bryant, J. (2014). The right word: Roget and his thesaurus. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. Peter Mark Roget loved to make lists even as a young boy. He was always in search of using the right word. He was a shy boy and his family moved a lot so he found that books were his constant friends. He studied a lot and at the young age of nineteen he became a doctor, but he was too young to practice. When he was finally old enough to practice medicine he started caring for the poor, but he still continued to write his lists in a book he was writing. Other books with lists were published, but none were as popular as Roget’s book which he called a thesaurus. The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus won the 2015 Robert F. Sibert Medal and is also a 2015 Caldecott Award Honor Book. Student and teachers who enjoyed this biography will also enjoy reading Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet.