Book Review Briefs: The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman

"The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman" by Meg Wolitzer

ʌ ʌ (2 carets up)

What a wonderful book for young readers. Whether interested in language or not, this is an enjoyable book and I'll bet anyone who reads it will discover a new found enthusiasm for vocabulary, parts of speech, and morphology.

If the cover image didn't give it away, the book is about the game of Scrabble, more specifically, a Youth Scrabble Tournament and what brings three preteens from different states to the tournament.

Here is a summary from Penguin.com:

At first glance, Duncan Dorfman, April Blunt, and Nate Saviano don't seem to have much in common. Duncan is trying to look after his single mom and adjust to life in a new town while managing his newfound Scrabble superpower—he can feel words and pictures beneath his fingers and tell what they are without looking. April is pining for a mystery boy she met years ago and striving to be seen as more than a nerd in her family of jocks. And homeschooled Nate is struggling to meet his father's high expectations for success.

When these three unique kids are brought together at the national Youth Scrabble Tournament, each with a very different drive to win, their paths cross and stories intertwine . . . and the journey is made extraordinary with a perfect touch of magic. Readers will fly through the pages, anxious to discover who will take home the grand prize, but there's much more at stake than winning and losing.

Anagrams are a frequent topic in the book, as evidenced by these excerpts:

"Words are like clay, Dorfman," he went on. "They can be shaped and messed with not only by your hands, but also by your head."

"PROSE is an anagram of ROPES. Oh, and SPORE is too. And POSER."

Here is an excerpt that includes the topics of vocabulary, parts of speech and morphology:

Duncan thought about the word AA, for instance, which he had looked up in the Scrabble dictionary and found out that it meant "rough, cindery lava." If he hadn't known it was a noun, he might have tried to add ING onto the end of it, thinking it was a verb.

Makes me wish I was a kid again so I could read books and play Scrabble all day long.

Psych Scrabble Words

One of my favorite tv shows to watch during the summer is Psych on the USA network. The show is very well written from a humor standpoint and the writers certainly know how to have fun with words. In a recent episode the main characters, Shaun Spencer, Shaun's father Henry and Shaun's friend Gus, are sitting in an interrogation room at the police station when the following exchange takes place.

Henry: “Not a word.”
A few seconds pass
Shawn very deliberately: “Bergulous”
Henry: “I said not a word.”
Shawn: “Oh I see, last week when we were playing Scrabble that was not a word, this week when it is convenient for you it is a word.”

Scrabble Anyone? by Guest Columnist LP Graziani

When Laura asked me to be a guest writer on her blog, I was hesitant since I am not a linguist or a writer. I struggled to think of a topic that would interest her readers. Then I ran across a word I thought would be good for playing Scrabble and it hit me, I could write about Scrabble strategy.

I have always enjoyed playing Scrabble but it wasn’t until I started playing regularly with my sister and brother-in-law, who are avid Scrabble players, that my competitive nature took over. Basically, I hated always losing. So I started to research Scrabble techniques and applied some of what I learned to our games. I actually started winning. So, I’ve decided to share one of the techniques.

In Scrabble one way to increase your score is to “layer” your words or run a word parallel to an existing word on the board. Being familiar with some lesser known two-letter words helps to increase your score since you can layer more of the word you are putting down. Here are some of my frequently used two letter words. Using the X, K, M and J helps to optimize your score.

1. Oy – used to express dismay or pain
2. Yo - used to call attention or to express affirmation
3. Xi - a Greek Letter
4. Qi - the vital force that in Chinese thought is inherent in all things
5. Aa - rough, cindery lava
6. Ae - one
7. Oe - a whirlwind off the Faeroe islands
8. Ka - the spiritual self of a human being in Egyptian religion
9. Jo - a sweetheart
10. Mu - a Greek letter

Are there any two-letter words you’ve used when playing scrabble?
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Thank you Lori.

If anyone else is interested in contributing, I would welcome articles from any of my readers. It is not necessary to be a linguist or a writer, just to have an interest in language and words and in sharing your observations.

An additional note on Scrabble - The book "Word Freak" by Stefan Fatsis is about competitive Scrabble. It is a fun, fascinating and educational read. Check it out if you haven't read it yet.