The Wonderful O [UNABRIDGED] (Audio Cassette)

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Review
"Handsomely reprinted, for children who can spell well, is James Thurber's 1957 story The Wonderful O, about a tyrannical pirate who bans everything on an island that contains the letter O - because his mother was once stuck in a porthole, with tragic consequences. Full of word lists and wordplay, with charming illustrations by Marc Simont, it is a verbally ambitious little classic for logophiles. Or, as the pirate would have it, lgphiles." --The Sunday Times (London)

"A playful allegory on love, valor and freedom, and a ceaseless romp with wordplay." --Publishers Weekly

"The Wonderful O, published in 1957, is a tale for children, and a reminder for adults, of the joys of love, liberty, language and, not least, humor. It has pirates and treasure and magic and a message that especially in complacent times must not be forgotten...The Wonderful O is a book worth finding, wherever you can, and reading, as one of its characters concludes, ‘lest we forget.’" –The Wall Street Journal
 
"Among James Thurber's 30 books were several for children. Two reader favorites of the Fifties, The Thirteen Clocks and The Wonderful O, have returned, illustrations by Marc Simont intact. These are funny, richly textured stories that pile on the fantasy and will make middle readers laugh a lot." –The Record (NJ)
 
"The Wonderful O and The 13 Clocks...witty, funny, imaginative tales which will earn Thurber a new generation of admirers. " –The Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate

“No one else could think up a fairy story, tale, legend, exercise or what have you, based upon ‘O’ alone. Certainly no one else could bring it off if he had. Mr. Thurber, however, can, did, and does. No more worthy ‘O’ words could go before The Wonderful O than another O Wonderful.” –Lewis Nichols, The New York Times

“A satirical adventure story about two scoundrels, one of whom has a violent dislike of the letter ‘O,’ and a search for buried treasure.” –Sam Zolotow, The New York Times

“A satire on dictatorship and a celebration of the spirit of freedom essential to the lively pursuit of happiness…The form of the story is wonderfully adroit.” –Charles Poole, The New York Times

“A prodigious performance. As a medium in the great séance of letters he is incomparable; he has only to utter an incantatory moan, and words levitate, phrases rap out unexpected messages, and whole sentences turn into ectoplasm.” –The New Yorker

“The loveliest and liveliest of parables. The end is a real surprise.” –Harper’s Magazine

“Excellent Thurber. Besides being a highly original fairy tale and a rollicking linguistic gambol, The Wonderful O is a still further fable for our time–perhaps the best and most serious that Thurber has written.” –New York Herald Tribune Book Review

“A dazzling feat of verbal virtuosity, with frequent lapses into interior rhyme.” –Library Journal

“While ostensibly for children who will love its wit, its rhythms, and its free-flowing imagination, it will speak irresistibly to older minds and funnybones and, one might add, heart.” –Boston Herald

“Perhaps the worthiest contemporary fabulist in English. His effects are almost musical. He gets us to laugh and gulp down another lesson in the value of human liberty at one end and the same time.” –San Francisco Examiner

“Pure and unadulterated Thurber, and that means Thurber at his zaniest. Not since Lewis Carroll has such foolishness masked such wisdom; and besides, it’s a gale of fun from start to finish.” –St. Louis Globe Democrat

“Like all good fables, it is told in simple language and in a manner children can delight in.” –Chicago Tribune

"Witty...extremely clever...It has a moral." –The Christian Science Monitor

“O, wonderful! James Thurber's grown-up kids' books, The Wonderful O and The 13 Clocks, long out of print, are back -- rich with ogres and oligarchs, riddles and wit. What distinguishes them is not just quixotic imagination but Thurber's inimitable delight in language. The stories beg to be read aloud...Thurber captivates the ear and captures the heart.” —Newsweek

“A disadvantaged world without O is amusingly imagined in James Thurber's 1957 children's book, The Wonderful O, about pirates who land on an island called Ooroo and tyrannically expunge their patron letter.” —Ottawa Citizen --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description
GRAMMY AWAARD NOMINEE

The Wonderful O tells of a man named Black who despised the letter "O." He deleted it from his language and omitted it from his words. Opals, moonstones, owls and oaks could not possibly be his items of choice. He preferred emeralds, rubies, sapphires and maps. At least they had no "O." Soon he wanted his entire village to omit the letter "O." But the villagers found words they would not do without- HOPE, LOVE, VALOR, and the most important one of all.

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7 Reviews 5 star:  (7) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   9 of 9 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Oh, no -- no O, July 3, 2002 By  R. Tiedemann "Sunnye" (Bellevue, NE USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: The Wonderful O (Hardcover) Pirates come to plunder a small island. When the spokesman tells them they have no treasure "except the blue of the water and the pink of our maidens' cheeks and lips, and the green of our fields," the pirates don't believe them and search high and low. Meanwhile, the captain of the ship, who hates the letter O, issues an edict. "I'll get rid of the letter O, in upper case and lower...All words in books or signs with an O in them shall have the O erased or painted out. We'll print new books and paint new signs without an O in them." Thus objects and words with Os are banished from the land forever. Disaster! Imagine the impact on community life! No houses, cottages or bungalows -- only huts, shacks, sheds, shanties and cabins without logs. No dough for the baker, no gold for the goldsmith, no forge for the blacksmith, no cloth for the tailor, no chocolate for the candymaker. (NOW you've gone too far!) No poetry without Os. Thurber writes, "A man named Otto Ott, when asked his name, could only stutter. Ophelia Oliver repeated hers, and vanished from the haunts of men." "We can't tell shot from shoot or hot from hoot," the blacksmith pointed out in a meeting with other townsfolk. "Oft becomes the same as foot, and odd the same as dodo. Something must be done at once or we shall never know what we are saying." The islanders decide that there are four words with an O that must not be lost. Hope, love and valor are three of them and the fourth is the point of the story. This is a beautifully written, rhythmic tale. THE WONDERFUL O will appeal to everyone who loves language. The story is a challenge to the imagination of the reader. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars N_ _h! What are we t_ d_?, November 17, 2003 By  tvtv3 "tvtv3" (Sorento, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)       This review is from: The Wonderful O (Hardcover) ...THE WONDERFUL O is a charming book. It's full of wit, wisdom, and social commentary. It's a great story and plays around with the English language in a most interesting way. This is a book that appeals to both adults and children and would also work well as a text in an upper elementary English class. It's a great book. Oh, yeah. Has anyone seen BRAVEHEART? There's a connection between the two. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great childrens' stories--about freedom., April 27, 1998 By A Customer This review is from: The Wonderful O (Hardcover) If there is any way to get this back in to print, I would buy copies for most children I care about. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 7 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars A Child's Eye View "The Wonderful O " is a very clever story with fun and adventure. It is a gripping novel that you don't want to put down because you really want to find out what happens next... Read more Published 1 month ago 5.0 out of 5 stars Chas and cnfusin reign supreme "The Wonderful O" is a delightful book for our younger readers about a dastardly group of pirates who invade the island of Ooroo looking for treasure. Read more Published on December 30, 2003 by JLind555 5.0 out of 5 stars Can't live fully without the letter O or this wonderful book I read The Wonderful O years ago as a young adult and find myself recommending the book to others. But, alas, the book is out of stock; I mean, the bk is ut f stck. Read more Published on June 24, 1999 5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't wait to share this book with someone! My spouse and I read this book aloud to each other, to our great delight. We share Thurber's love of language, and he's a whiz with it. Read more Published on April 25, 1997 Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 7 customer reviews...

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