Customer Reviews

The American Education Publishing Children's Dictionary (Wordsmyth Reference Series)

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

 

 

This dictionary disappoints from the very beginning! While it is beautifully laid out, with color-highlighted parts of speech, excellent font size, easy to understand syllabication and a complete alphabet on each page to help children remember the letter order, the content is severely lacking. My eight-year-old daughter couldn't find the first word she looked up: "dappled". Other words required for school, such as `contiguous, personification, peripatetic, pachyderm, horseradish and more, were not in this dictionary. These are all words that a child wouldn't necessarily know the meaning to, but would be part of a course of study. Soon my daughter didn't want to use it. What's the point of going through all the work if you probably won't find the word? We exchanged it today for the Encarta World English Dictionary and we're both much happier. The Encarta is all black & white, but at least it has the words we need. McGraw Hill advertises its dictionary as `The only one your child will ever need" and states that it is "targeted at the students in elementary through middle school". I find it impossible to believe that a middle school child would have no reason to look up the words that we looked up. I guess McGraw-Hill assumes that children won't use dictionaries after first or second grade, except as bookshelf ornaments or paperweights.

My 3.5 year old is COMPLETELY in love with this dictionary. He is asleep in bed with one hand on it as I type. I am going to be buying it from Amazon because the local library is VERY tired of us checking it out and renewing it and renewing it and renewing it.

I know he needs a real dictionary (not the picture word ones, yawn) and so we went to the library and looked at all the versions THEY had available for kiddoes.

This was the only one we found with a two page Star Map Constellation graphic AND a big color spread on Dinosaurs. Believe me, these are apparently the DECIDING FACTORS in picking this dictionary if you are 3-ish.

He is constantly flipping through and stopping to read words and meanings aloud at all hours of the day and night (the whole reading thing is a long story and yes we're very proud and exasperated because there is no SPELL-TALK that adults can do without him sounding out the words like I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M and Z-O-O).

This is NOT the only dictionary your child will ever need. Depending on your child you may have to pop open your real dictionary now and then... or just go straight to the Internet. It obviously doesn't have every word that an adult dictionary would have... but then my adult dictionary does not have the CONSTELLATIONS or DINOSAUR spreads and it does not encourage him to kiss it and snuggle off to sleep with it.

So there are trade-offs.

In the long run, I think it will leave a good, warm attitude about dictionaries and make them more approachable.

It is an elementary level dictionary and my 6 year old enjoys reading from it in the evenings. He is an advanced reader, but I do think the term "elementary" applies differently to everyone's needs. Many elementary school students are capable of reading well beyond their grade level. I think for very advanced words such as another reviewer was looking for, they are probably best working with an Intermediate or Collegiate dictionary like Merriam-Webster for their advanced 3rd grader. We happen to own the complete Oxford English Dictionary and I do not have any problems looking up more advanced words with him, if this should ever happen!

One huge plus is that the McGraw Hill Children's Dictionary is sturdily bound, and is printed on a lightweight stock. The pages are not flimsy, it is just a lighter bulk paper, so it weighs substantially less than the heavy coated versions of other childrens' dictionaries. In this respect, I applaud McGraw-Hill for understanding a young child will be able to lift a 900+ dictionary more readily than than one that is twice as heavy. I can imagine a very heavy dictionary can put a child off from even looking up words.

This Dictionary has colorful 2-page spreads on the Constellation, weather, musical instruments, conservation and weapons, that are fascinating to study for the curious mind.

Received fast and in excellent condition. My kids love it and it is easy to use. However, there were some words that my 4th grader could not find in here so he ended using my dictionary.

This Diccionary is wonderful for the kids, it's easy to find the words and explains very good!!

Well over half the words my children (ranging in age from 5 to 12) have tried to look up are not in this dictionary. If your child can read, and speak English well, chances are he will never need to use this dictionary, as any word of which he does not already know the meaning, from casual conversation and reading, will not be listed. Here is a partial list of words my children have tried to look up that are not in this dictionary: fauna, saucy, waive, nosegay, allocate, alms, paradox, proselytize, fagot (a bundle of wood, in case you are wondering), alma mater, and many others. My kids have made a game of betting whether a word will be in this dictionary, and laugh when it isn't there, so I guess this book has served a slightly entertaining purpose. Otherwise, it was a total waste of money.

I bought this Dictionary to my son.I want he can learn more and got more interesting about reading and learning. After he got it, if anything he don't know he'll open the dictionary to look for it. I think it will really can help him and this dictionary is very easy to use.It is a very good Dictionary.