Stacey’s Extraordinary Words

Stacey loved words. She loved to read and write and say them. She adored fun words, long words, unusual words. Words with wonderful histories and weird combinations. Whenever Stacey learned a new word, it was like making a new friend. First, she would find the dictionary. Then she would look up where the word had come from and learn its secrets. Did any of its letters hide and stay quiet? Like the p in ptarmigan, a bird that lives in cold, northern regions. Or were they strong like the i in bright? Next, she wrote the word in her special Notebook of Extraordinary Words. She practiced how to arrange the  letters just right. How to sound them out. That’s because she loved spelling interesting words most of all. With her favorite words, she would try to remember their quirks- what made them special. When she saw a superlong word like onomatopoeia, a funny word to describe the sounds of other words, she had to jump and sway. Words like duckling made her grin. Persnickety tickled her tongue. Sometimes Stacey thought words understood her better than people did. When she sat by herself during recess, they never teased her about being quiet. Or about being clumsy when she fell. Or awkward when the joke in her head came out wrong. When she read books under the covers, words never told her to go to sleep. Words understood why she was grumpy or anxious. In fact, words helped her explain what she was feeling- if only to herself.