The Fake Dictionary

*Honorable Mention in the 2024 Purple Dragonfly Awards for Activity Books*

Someone, somewhere, somehow made up a particular word to be meaningful and useful. And so to question—what are the rules around who gets to make up words and why?

The Fake Dictionary challenges 8 to 12-year-olds to create a series of images of new meanings to everyday words. As the title implies, this is a very original dictionary. Using family relics, Clare-Rose created a part text and part image book to explore the meanings behind the meanings of words, hoping to open up conversations around the concept of change.

The book also encourages children to make up their own new meanings to words that already exist. What parts of our brain can we plasticise to empower us to see the differences and be bold enough to make our very own changes? Want to have a go?

The Fake Dictionary is part of the Young Philosophers Series dedicated to listening to and valuing children as natural philosophers. These unconventional and creative books are designed to get children’s imaginations flowing.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

1. Pick your favourite letter of the alphabet.
2. Read the new, made-up meaning for an old word. You may want to wonder about what we can change in this world, what we cannot and who decided this and when?
3. Draw the new meaning in and among the photos of the author’s grandmother’s old things on the accompanying page, as per the example for the letter A.
4. Collect a few more words beginning with that letter, write them down and develop your own new meanings for those words. You may want to wonder more about ‘change’ as you write and draw. You could wonder about how you could change your mind. Or if a ghost could change their mind. Or how about, could a ghost make you change your mind? Or if a ghost could make a GHOST TRAIN in a theme park? Keep all your thoughts in a journal.

Look out for the Everything-World Blankish Journal, an accompanying storytelling and philosophical activity book where Clare-Rose Trevelyan goes deeper into exploring the questions of CHANGE woven through this story.

Expressing a lifelong passion for philosophy ignited by the mysteries of the universe and the enchantment of everyday existence, Clare-Rose Trevelyan has dedicated the past two decades to fostering philosophical inquiry among young minds. Through roles in schools, external literacy programs, theatre, and her books, she has endeavoured to awaken the philosopher within children and to encourage them to contemplate their own thoughts and ponder the nature of their curiosity. By enthralling them with vibrant narratives, intricate characters, evocative soundscapes, and above all, thought-provoking questions, she seeks to inspire a deeper engagement with the complexities of existence and the wonder of the human mind.