Summary:
Little Elbert is at this fancy elegant party. Elbert overhears a brand new word. The word stays with him, deep inside until a croquet mallet land on Elbert's toe. The new word SPRANG out of his mouth with great force and he screams the word. This word was an ugly, bad word! Every person at the party paused what they were doing due to the fact they were outraged this big, bad word came out for Elbert's tiny mouth.

Elbert's mother took Elbert to the bathroom. His mother responded, "We do not say bad words. Clean it out of your mouth, and never use it again!" She handed Elbert a bar of soap to scrub the bad word out his mouth.
Once again when Elbert returned to the party, Sir Hilary's mallet was launched up into the air and landed on Elbert's toe. Everyone once again stopped to see Elbert's reaction. Elbert's face turned red. He was angry. Elbert shouted, "MY STARS! THUNDER AND LIGHTNING! RATS AND BLUE BLAZE! SUFFERING CATS! BLISTERING HOP TOADS! ZOUNDS AND GADZOOKS!" Everyone gave Elbert cheers for not using that big, bad word. They all proceeded on with the party and had a great time.

Illustrations:
To better explain this big, bad word the illustrators (Audrey & Don Wood) did something a bit creative and artistic. Children tend to like (and understand) things better that are visual compared to concrete things. So the Audrey and Don brought this bad word to life by making it a small storm cloud. It is covered with dark, bristly hairs and is very ugly. As the story goes on, we see this storm cloud grow bigger and bigger. It flew into Elbert's mouth, where it began to grow bigger the longer Elbert held onto it. When Elbert said the word, we get to see how ugly and mean and big this storm cloud of a bad word is. ( )

Elbert hears hear bad word that he has never heard of before. When he accidentally uses it at the party, he gets in trouble by his mother. He decides to get the cure for this bad word and trade it out for better words. This is a great story that clearly helps the readers to not say bad words, and to use words that would be good instead. ( )

Elbert is the only child at an elegant garden party. While wandering through the crowd of adults, Elbert hears an unfamiliar word. The word has manifested itself into an ugly, furry little cloud. Elbert catches it and puts it in his back pocket and went on his way. When Elbert joins the crowd to listen to Aunt Isabella sing, the word flies into his mouth. Just then, chaos ensues resulting in a mallet being tossed in the air and landing on Elbert's foot. Elbert goes to scream but instead the bad word jumps out, shocking everyone. Elbert knows he has to get rid of the bad word so he visits the gardener, who happens to be a wizard. The wizard gardener bakes Elbert a cake filled with good words that he can use instead of the ugly bad word. As he eats the cake, the bad word shrivels up to only the size of a flea. Chaos breaks out at the party once more and again, a mallet lands on Elbert's foot. This time, a whole slew of good words come out of his mouth instead of the bad one. Elbert is finally free of his bad word as he watches it crawl down a hole in the ground and disappear.
This book can serve as a lesson for children and adults alike. Children will learn that there are many other words to use to express how you're feeling, and bad words don't need to be used. Having the illustrations of the bad word taking the form of a mean ugly creature will help them understand that some words just shouldn't be used. For adults, it's a reminder to watch the language you use because you never know who may be listening. Children are like sponges and they pick up on everything adults do. ( )

One little slip of the tongue, an utterance of one bad word...and Elbert has upset the entire lawn party...

This is an enchanting "EB" with bright colorful pictures, wonderful stuffy adult characters, and a nice message. ( )

52 months - a well written humorous tale with an important moral and O totally got it. Done... Thank you Audrey Wood. :) ( )