The word snoop - Ursula Dubosarsky 2009

Tom swifties
Is that a real person?

You’ve heard of a cookie factory or an ice-cream factory, but imagine a writing factory! Rows and rows of writers hunched over desks writing story after story, trying to think up new plots and characters every day.

About 70 years ago in the United States, the E. L. Stratemeyer writing factory produced a popular series of children’s adventure books about a boy genius inventor named Tom Swift. They had titles like Tom Swift and His Sky Racer, Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera,and Tom Swift and His Giant Magnet.These hardworking writers were teased for all the different words they used whenever Tom Swift said anything—Tom Swift didn’t just say things, he declared,he murmured,he whispered,he giggled, he stammered, he snorted,he sneered . . . you get the idea!

Later, a kind of special joke developed out of this tendency of Tom’s, called a Tom Swifty. It’s a kind of pun, which is when you use a word that has two meanings at once to make people laugh. In a Tom Swifty, when Tom Swift says something, the writer uses a word that relates to what he is talking about to make a joke.

Like this:

“I just love cats,” Tom Swift purred.

(Cats purr, get it?)

“I checked, and there really are 432,911

lollipops in the jar,” Tom Swift recounted.

(Tom counted the lollpops again, and then

he told you about it!)

Then there’s another type of Tom Swifty where it’s the adverb (which is the word that tells you how he says something) that makes the joke. Take a look at the ones on the following page.

“Who turned out the lights?” Tom Swift

said darkly.

“Can you lend me your pencil sharpener?”

asked Tom Swift bluntly.

“Would you like to pet my cocker spaniel?”

Tom Swift suggested doggedly.

“I’m no good at darts,” Tom Swift

said aimlessly.

Try to make some up yourself. Once you start, it can be hard to stop (said the Word Snoop open-endedly . . .).