The American Heritage Children's Dictionary [Hardcover]

Editors of The American Heritage Dictionaries (Editor)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

The American Heritage(R) Children's Dictionary for children ages 9­12 contains 37,000 entries plus informative and useful special features such as synonyms, word histories, and vocabulary builders. This best-selling dictionary has been expanded for 1997 with a new section on phonics and spelling to help children build their spelling, vocabulary, and reading skills and to make it easy for parents and teachers to help children learn. A detailed guide to vowel and consonant sounds gives the most common spelling as well as many less common ones encountered in everyday reading. The section on word building demonstrates how to form simple compound words, how to use prefixes and suffixes, and how to understand word roots. This dictionary is a complete language reference for every child.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The revised, 21st-century edition of The American Heritage Children's Dictionary, designed for ages 8 and older, doesn't contain the words "plethora," "treacle," "metaphor," or "reciprocal." What use is it, then? you may ask yourself, but that's a question that many kids could answer for you. The letters are large enough to read! Every word is used in a sentence! There are over 800 color photos and illustrations! When you look up the word "erratic" in The American Heritage Dictionary for grownups (Third Edition), it says, "1. Lacking consistency or uniformity; irregular. 2. Unconventional; eccentric." When you look "erratic" up in this children's dictionary, it is defined as, "Not following a steady or usual course; irregular. Our rowboat's course was erratic after we lost our oars." More third-grader-friendly? Certainly.

More than 400 words have been added to this edition--"electronic mail," "online," "seersucker," "vagabond," and "millennium," to name a few. This hefty, appealing hardcover dictionary contains 14,000 main entries and 37,000 boldface forms; it's the only children's dictionary to feature a 10-page phonics guide to help early readers sound out and spell words; and it includes a thesaurus (even if it is very basic, at six pages long). Throughout the book are information blocks such as "Word History" ("hibernate" comes from the Latin word for winter), "Language Detective" (how do you pronounce "creek" where you live?), "Vocabulary Builder" (with word parts such as "-less"); and "Synonyms." If you're looking for word fun for the whole family, younger children ages 4 to 6 may enjoy The American Heritage Picture Dictionary, and older kids ages 11 to 15 might find The American Heritage Student Dictionary helpful. It's never too early to give your children the tools they need to learn! --Karin Snelson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-8?With 37,000 entries and well-placed color illustrations on almost every double page, this revision of the 1994 edition has a fresh, appealing look. More than 400 new entries have been added, including "geode," "Ramadan," "millennium," "cyberspace," and "World Wide Web." The entry words are not split into syllables so they are easier to read than in many dictionaries. Sample sentences using the word are italicized and homophones are listed. The syllabication, pronunciation, plural, and parts of speech round out each entry. For selected words, there are boxed examples of synonyms used in sentences. "Word History" facts are given for interesting cases and are set off by purple bars. "Vocabulary Builder" boxes are set off in orange and give general rules and examples for use of common prefixes and suffixes. An excellent usage guide and a full-page pronunciation key appear at the beginning of the book. The main entries are followed by a short thesaurus, a section on phonics and spelling, a seven-page geography section, a double-spread world map, and a U.S. map. There are no biographical entries. Colorful, attractive, and easy to use, this dictionary will fill the needs of students. It is similar to the revised Macmillan Dictionary for Children (S & S, 1997), so personal taste should dictate choice, or buy them both.?Priscilla Bennett, State University of West Georgia
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 880 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; Revised edition (February 24, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395857627
• ISBN-13: 978-0395857625
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,910,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Kid's Dictionary, July 23, 2000

By 

J. Morgan "joelmor" (Millburn, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The American Heritage Children's Dictionary (Hardcover)

I bought this dictionary for my daughter when she started first grade - knowing that it would be a while until her reading skills were good enough for her to use it. Beginning in about the 2nd grade, she started to use it regularly - and in 3rd grade (last year) she used it all the time. Terrific first dictionary for a kid, with great pictures in full color, good art and illustrations, nice bold type, etc. What's nice about it is that it's layout is just like a grown-up dictionary - which they will switch to in time. This is a perfect dictionary for a grade schooler to learn to do 'research' with appropriate elementary school/junior high vocabularly. Highly recommended!

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great 1st Dictionary - 1st-4th grades, December 10, 2004

By 

Tina M. Steblein "steblein" (Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The American Heritage Children's Dictionary (American Heritage Dictionary) (Hardcover)

My review is based on the 2003 version. This version must be vastly improved over earlier reviews, as earlier reviews said it had no pronunciation guide. This version is great! It has blue text for the word. Short, concise definitions and a pronunciation guide at the end.

I feel this is a great "real" 1st dictionary for kids. I picked it for it's readability, suitability/content, and concise definitions. And, as some reviewers said, it may not have "every" word, but I found this version to be the easiest to start with and "entice" them into using the dictionary. I really like the DK/Merrian version, but alas, it's really hard for me and my little guys (1st and 2nd) to decipher through all the blah text, symbols, and more complex definitions. I want them to be excited about reading. My plan is to use this one now until the kids seem to outgrow it, and then I'll upgrade to an "older dictionary". Maybe by then DK/Merriam will have an easier format in a few years. In the interim, I'll use the dictionary.com or merriam-webster online for the missing vocab words. Multiple resources are great.

In closing, I did sit in Barnes and Noble for 20 minutes comparing between the Scholastic, DK/merriam, New World Webster, and American Heritage. I still think for a first children's dictionary that this is a great solution. I would have thought Scholastic would have done a better job. The New World Webster was good with definitions, but the artwork consisted of drawings that were not as "good" and the readability was not quite as good.

Hope this helps all in the market.

42 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Up-to-date words and good illustrations., November 25, 1998

By 

Ruth T. Woods (Alexandria VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The American Heritage Children's Dictionary (Hardcover)

I am very happy with the content of this dictionary. It will be a gift for my granddaughter who is 8= however I almost returned it because it is so heavy (6+ pounds). Once she finds a place for it, she will enjoy it and get good use from it for the next two or three years.