ironic--something characterized by a poignant difference between what is expected and the reality

The last day of pre-school was a picnic. I spoke to the teacher who worked on letters with the kids on Wednesdays. In Emily's letter book, she always had nice comments. In fact, the nice comment always started with the letter of the week.

I said that next year she might have a child as obsessed with WordGirl as my daughter was. She said that she was amazed at how much that television program had helped Emily's vocabulary. Actually, though, Emily had only seen it once at that point (although we're finding it on TV this summer).

My personal opinion is that Emily likes WordGirl *because* Emily has a large vocabulary. Emily *identifies* with her. It's also nice to have a female hero for her to balance against all the Ninja Turtles and Spidermen in her class.