captious ˈkap-shəs adjective
: tending to find and call attention to faults
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The word captious has appeared in one article on NYTimes.com in the past three years, on June 28, 2017, in “Board Books to Get Babies Talking” by Maria Russo, which includes a short review of the book “Brick by Brick” by Giuliano Ferri:
This lovely, slightly oversize board book is wordless, but its simple story unfolds in a way that a baby or toddler can follow with keen interest. We first see a white wall, which a mouse begins taking apart brick by brick. On each page, he’s joined by another animal as more bricks are taken out, until we can see the view into the countryside on the other side of the wall. Eventually, the wall is gone, and the animals stare across a river at another set of animals. Then they start building a bridge, using the bricks that were once a wall. The metaphor is so wonderfully clear — and so vitally important, especially in these captious times — you can practically feel the shards of hope lodging in your heart as you read it with a child.
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