"Happy are children with caring adults who help them discover the power of words."

"...Words are symbols for ideas. The more words we know, the more ideas we know. And the more ideas we know, the more creative we can be — because creativity is just a process of putting old ideas together in a new way."
— John Gile. World Congress Presentation. International Reading Association

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"a delightfully whimsical account of why words are necessary and important in everyday life. Gile previously published The First Forest, Keeping First Things First, and Oh, How I Wished I Could Read! The award-winning author has another one sure to be a hit.

"In Dr. Seuss style, together with the charming illustrations of Karen Gruntman, Gile tells the story of the evolution of words. Beginning with a time "when words and names were unknown, when people lived in caves and trees," he explains how various discoveries and inventions helped improve the quality of life. The book is funny and entertaining, and gets the message across in a free-flowing, rib-tickling way." — S. Johnson, Review

"With words
we've learned
how to build cars,
to make planes,
and put rockets
in outer space!

"Words give us power to learn and to grow . . ."

What Is That Thing? Whose Stuff Is This? provides the same practical motivation for vocabulary development that Oh, How I Wished I Could Read! provides for reading power. Author John Gile uses lyrically written text to capitalize on the phonological awareness dimension of rhythm and rhyme in writing as he takes us on a whimsical tour of amusing and confusing situations we would face in a world without word power. It's a book parents and teachers can enjoy themselves as they use it to help children understand the key role of words in our lives, the connection between reading and vocabulary development (what Gile calls "word power"), and how the words we say to each other can harm and hurt or help and heal.