Sample Your Words, See How They Taste: A Lesson in Thinking before You Speak

Sample Your Words, See How They Taste is written as a tool to start a discussion with children about the impact and power of words.

Grandma Grace is modeled after my own maternal grandmother, Effie McTier. Like Grandma Grace, my grandmother taught many life lessons in the kitchen. She too used metaphors like the advice she gave against gossiping, "A dog that will bring a bone will carry one." Though Sample Your Words, See How They Taste was not one of my grandmother's saying, I felt her presence as I was writing.

In this book, words are compared to different foods. Just as food affects the sense of taste differently, Grandma Grace teaches that the words we choose matter-especially to those who are close to us. Grandma Grace advises her granddaughter, Natalie, to choose her words carefully, and she shares suggestions for how to put into practice the technique of sampling our words before saying them.