The Shadow
Local Audiologist, Gary Pillow, located at 283 W. Main Street in Covington beside Crawford’s Photography, will soon be publishing his second children’s book. His first, ironically titled “Roonerspisms,” was released last year and is full of spoonerisms. If the word sounds new to you, you are not alone. We had Pillow describe spoonerisms during his interview.
“Spoonerisms are when you interchange the original letter of the words, two words, and you switch them, and it makes a new meaning.” He gave several examples of spoonerisms that have been featured on “Saturday Night Live,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” and, of course, in his first book, “Roonerspisms.” One example he gave from “The Andy Griffith Show” was from the barber character who often used spoonerisms such as “drancy fess” as opposed to “fancy dress.” A couple of examples from his book “Roonerspisms” were the clever uses of “butterfly” into “flutter by” and “trail snacks” into “snail tracks.”
The word spoonerism was named after Professor William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930) who taught at New College, Oxford. Spooner was famous for switching around the beginning consonants of sounds whenever he taught or spoke. It was something he didn’t do intentionally, according to Pillow, but something that would ultimately cement Spooner’s notoriety.
Dr. Gary Pillow’s book, “Roonerspisms,” is itself a spoonerism and, while the idea behind his book may sound complicated, Pillow’s book and purpose are quite simple. The book is full of fun, whimsical paintings which Pillow painted himself. It is also an easy read and designed specifically to help children gain early literacy development through phonological awareness. It is a concept that Pillow is quite passionate about.
“Phonological awareness is paramount for early literacy development,” Pillow said. “My plight is to try to help children develop these early literacy skills.” His second book will follow the same pattern as the first in terms of continuing to raise their phonological awareness. However, this time it will deal with sound segmentation and sound blending. It will also deal with adding and taking away letters to create new words. For example, in one excerpt from his book, Pillow adds the “C” (using the ‘kuh’ sound), to the word lamb to create the word “clam.” “We don’t care how it’s spelled,” he said. The book is all about helping children understand their language a little better. He also used the example “birdbath but take away bath and you’ve got bird.” His second book, he hopes, will be called “Wordyspisms” and should be available for purchase by late winter of this year.
Dr. Gary Pillow is also working on his third children’s book as his second nears publication. He stated, “I have a third book I’m starting on. It’s totally not about reading, it’s about speech therapy and… how to identify if a child is delayed in their speech and sound production.” His third book, which won’t be out until sometime next year, will help children of all ages.
As for where to obtain Dr. Pillow’s first book, “Roonerspisms,” they are available for purchase in his office where he is more than willing to autograph for buyers. They are also available online through Amazon and can be purchased as a paperback for $14.99 or as a Kindle e-book for $3.99. It’s also available in paperback on the Barnes and Noble website and in Barnes and Noble stores for $14.99.
