A lighthearted book with a well-defined purpose, this volume from the Words Are CATegorical series seeks to defuse the beginning reader's fear of long compound words by showing that they are made up of short simple ones. Besides giving many examples, the rhyming, rhythmic text explains that although compound words are most commonly used as nouns, they can also be used to describe nouns or to show action. In the comical digital artwork, daffy animal characters appear in colorful scenes illustrating compound words such as armpit, earthquake, seasick, and understand. An enjoyable addition to language arts units.

Cleary begins with a very general definition of his terms--"Compound Word: A word made up of two or more shorter words"--then proceeds full steam ahead with examples that fit the description but may or may not actually be compounds (horsemanship? fourteen?). As usual, the cartoon cats careen around the pages.