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Review: Wiggling Words

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Wiggling Words 
By Kate Rolfe 
Sommerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2026. Picture Book 

Every now and again a book comes along that really captures something that is important to me. As a person who often has letters or numbers shift around when I’m trying to read or write, this book really spoke to me. It is about a girl who gets really frustrated when trying to read due to words moving, jumping, and wiggling around on the page. In the story, the protagonist gets overwhelmed when all the letters fall out of the book and she can’t make sense of anything. Eventually with when just a few letters are pulled out and looked at on their own, things start to slowly make sense. 

This is a great book to help readers who have dyslexia realize that their experience with reading is valid and hard. I love how the illustrations—with the vibrant (yet limited) colors, the beautifully hand-printed letters, the striking layout—all bring to light the feeling of what is happening to readers with dyslexia. Readers who have or know someone who has a reading disability will find this book a powerful window into their experience. Lovely.
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