L is for Lollygag: Quirky Words for a Clever Tongue by Chronicle Books Ages 9-12 128 pages Chronicle Books March 2006 Hardcover     Gadzooks! Another word book! This one is written for young adults, but I suspect there is a hidden agenda here: L is for Lollygag is a book that grandparents may want to give to their grandchildren to insure that some of the richest and most enjoyable language in the collective vocabulary do not get lost, in, like, you know, whatever... You'd have to be a real ornery curmudgeon to eschew this short but amusing verbal extravaganza. It's illustrated with drawings that even a hoity toity muckety muck would not look askance at. The definitions of the madcap flotsam and jetsam are accurate without being hackneyed. Even a jaded wisenheimer won't give this tome the old heave-ho. Not chosen capriciously, the selections are a pleasure to say and guaranteed to get your teacher or your potential employer all atwitter at your erudition, if you have the chutzpah to sprinkle a few through your everyday speech. But beware spoonerisms as you promenade through the hodge podge of verbiage -- you could risk a vexatious comeuppance that could put the kibosh on your plans to impress the galoots and roughnecks down at the corner saloon. You'll be shouting "Fiddlesticks!" if you mistake a moron for an oxymoron, or let your flotsam and jetsam get kitty cornered to your kit and kaboodle. Histrionics aside, this is no dictionary for the mere hoi polloi. Contrariwise, you have to be a real aficionado of word play not to get flummoxed by the barrage of well chosen, good-natured balderdash that awaits you, and you'll need gumption to keep from getting the heebie-jeebies over some of these enigmatic turns of phrase. My advice: stay loosey-goosey. Don't be a yellow-bellied, side-winding, mollycoddled milquetoast. Don't dilly-dally. Skedaddle on out to your favorite book monger and pick up a copy of L is for Lollygag. Reading it is duck soup. Indubitably.     web reviews   Barbara Bamberger Scott/2008 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)