Customer Reviews

DK First Dictionary

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was looking for a dictionary for my first grade classroom - something appealing and complete, but focused on children age 6-7. I love most DK books, and while this one is visually appealing, it was missing a lot of basic words. For example, "turtle" is no where to be found. Perhaps by adding the thesaurus they cut out some of the other basics. I ended up selecting another DK dictionary, the DK Children's Illustrated Dictionary instead. The American Heritage First Dictionary is also excellent - Houghton Mifflin ISBN0618280073.

I bought this book for a 5 year old. I wanted to teach my 5 year old how to look up words. This is the best children's dictionary I have ever read. Now I purchsed 2 others but this is the easiest book for any child to use and the most fun. I love the photos and the simplicity.

Like one of the other reviewers, I bought the book for a toddler--hoping it would continue to be useful as he got older. I have a lot of the DK books, and I really like them. I wouldn't buy this one again though, and I'll eventually replace it with something else.

It's not really an illustrated dictionary. It doesn't claim to be either, but with all the pictures on the front, I admit that I was prettymuch expecting an illustrated dictionary. Just from a quick glance, it seems that maybe one out of ten words is illustrated. It claims 800 photos for more than 3000 entries, but the illustration to word ratio is not 1:4. They must be counting all the pictures on the cover or something.

I also have some big problems with the illustrations. Almost all of them lack context, so they don't really illustrate what they're supposed to be illustrating. The picture of an eel, for example, looks just like a snake because they don't show the eel in water. The illustration for "endangered" is a baby jaguar. And the illustration for "heavy" shows a balance scale with a cat one one side and a toy truck on the other. They show that the plastic truck is heavier than the kitten, and I have a hard time believing it. I mean, why not show a boulder and a flower or something?

Overall, it's a good book. But it's not up to normal DK standards.

It was great to have this item for my son going to pre-k. I really satisfy with price and shipping.

Bought this book for a two year old and he loved looking through it. Now his little brother, who is now almost two, points to the beautiful pictures and wants me to name them. True it is missing a few words but it is a delightful introduction to many new images. Typical DK high quality.