The Children's Illustrated Irish Dictionary: English-Irish/Irish-English [Hardcover]

John Borthwick (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Series: Dictionary

Designed to be a child's very first foreign language dictionary (5-10 years). 500 entries, each accompanied by a large illustration.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 94 pages
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781807131
• ISBN-13: 978-0781807135
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,376,771 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Irish
  • #54 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Gaelic

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars " Nice for kids or adults", July 24, 2000

By 

Jennifer "jeanvieve7" (Monroe, WA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Children's Illustrated Irish Dictionary: English-Irish/Irish-English (Hardcover)

This is a very simple straight forward little dictionary.Onething that is essential is that it has two wonderful pronunciationpages before you begin the dictionary. The pronunciation pages explain how to pronunce vowels, consonants and also explains about broad and slender.

The layout of this dictionary is simple. It is in alphabetical order, and contains pretty simple everyday use words; everything from laughter, to green, to bat. What I really like is that it gives the english word, the irish spelling and the irish pronunciation, as well as a small illustration next to each.

I believe gaelic (irish) would be a very hard language for a child to learn, however this dictionary would be most helpful. I bought it for myself and I'm an adult. I think even though I really don't need pictures, they help by giving your memory a visual as well as an oral memory for association. Kind of like those little quiz cards when you're a kid.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good..., September 22, 2001

By 

Elizabeth Smith "Nixie" (Baltimore County, Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Children's Illustrated Irish Dictionary: English-Irish/Irish-English (Hardcover)

I thought this Irish Dictionary wasn't bad. As a total beginner in Irish, this has taught me quite a few words. The illustrations are beautifully done, and best of all, each word gives a rough english spelling of its pronunciation, instead of an annoying pronunciation guide at the back you have to keep reffering to (and that often doesn't apply to every single word).

However, I don't think I got enough for [...]. The entries all have large illustartions that take up a large portion of the page, and hence there aren't very many entries. [...].

Also, I thought perhaps it should have been better organized. Maybe they should have put the colors and numbers together in a list in one section of the book, instead of alphabetically in with the other entries. Trying to learn to count to ten is rather tedious when you have to flip through the whole book to find each number.

But for younger children, this is an excellent book, as the illustrations provide a great visual to accompany the entries. The pronunciation guide, as I've mentioned, is a life-saver, as well. So in conclusion, I would recommend this book, if you aren't interested in the layout of the book and the fact that it doesn't have too many entries [....] The only thing I will strongly emphasize here is *only* buy this book *if* you are an *absolute* beginner at the Irish language!!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars handy..., November 28, 2005

By 

Zaxy "zax" (nowhere in particular, usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Children's Illustrated Irish Dictionary: English-Irish/Irish-English (Hardcover)

I have a library full of language learning books for my kids. Some ok, some good, some great.

I found this dictionary handy and really quite well done. I especially liked the easy phonetic pronunciation printed under each entry, and the attractive pictures.

Basically, I have only one complaint: most of the few entries in this dictionary were used up by choices which were basically useless.

It had far too many words which are the same in both languages- at least phonetically. For example, "piano" is the same in both languages- as well as many others like "platypus" and "alligator." I'm not sure what the point was to including obscure words like the last two. They may have been fun to learn had there been a different name for them in Irish, but since they're the same...?

The whole point of getting a foreign language book is to learn new vocabulary words.
(NOTE: This wouldn't bother me so much if it were teaching about the development or sharing of language traits. However, as these are words which were 'invented' for the irish language in modern times (since there weren't any alligators or platypus there, historically) it's just not the case.

Also, they included several words like "ocean liner" and "sieve" which would be totally useless to children.

If it had been as well presented and as beautifully illustrated, but contained MORE APPLICABLE and *unique*, native words, it would have scored a full five stars from me.

All in all, it has at least 60 to 70% real, unique Irish words that kids can relate to and be interested in learning and using in their everyday lives; it has an attractive, easy to use layout that will draw and keep their interest and attention.

I give it four out of five *shining* stars!