Vocabulary for
The Weaving of a Dream
with Sniffy the Hamster, resident wordsmith

(this book has no page numbers)

brocade

Sniffy Says: "My favorite brocade in the world was made by my Aunt Hammy. She lives in China. It's my brocade because she gave it to me for my birthday and it's made of silk. It's like a blanket, but I'd never use it as a blanket because it's far too beautiful. Aunt Hammy put lots of pictures on the silk using gold and silver threads. If you touch it you can feel the pictures because of the threads. Trees and flowers and boats and mountains cover every inch of it. When I stare at it it makes me wish I lived there."

widow

Sniffy Says: "My sister, Sneezy, is a widow. She married Jimmy Ziggertoes, a hamster from the palm tree across the street. Well, one day Zigger, that's what I called him, decided he wanted to climb this big pine tree in the back yard. I tried to tell him not to, but he said it was there and he had to climb it. So he starts climbing and climbing and climbing. Now Zigger was a talker. He could talk and talk and talk. So as he was climbing he was saying things like, 'I'm the biggest, I'm the best, I'm the climbingest hamster you ever did see.' He just kept talking all the way to the top. 'I made it,' he yelled and then he fell. All the way down he talked: 'I'm a flying hamster—the only one I know.' He never hit the ground, unfortunately that's because a hawk snatched him out of the air, but he just kept talking: 'Nice catch, hawk! Hey, this is a nice view, much better than the top of the pine tree. I hope you have salt and pepper because I'll taste much better that way.' We never saw him again and that's how my sister became a widow."

maize

Sniffy Says: "Maize? Where is it? I'm hungry and maize sounds great! Boil it and let me eat it right off the cob! Oh yeah, put some butter on it and some salt, lay it my cage and let me chomp, chomp, chomp that corn until it's all gone. I love Indian corn. I could eat it all day—wait—I did eat it all day—there's nothing better than the smell of maize in the morning or in the afternoon or at night or on a rainy day . . ."

©2005-2012 Glen Draeger (all rights reserved)
Millstone Education: World Literature / http://www.millstoneeducation.com/worldLit