Customer Reviews

The New First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Your Child Needs to Know

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This dictionary is essential for everyone, not just children. This should be in every household and in every classroom, it has the basics organized in sections such as language arts, math, science,and visual and performing arts. Every child should be taught this information before graduating from 8th grade and every adult with a college education really should know all these facts, ideas, theories, and movements.

This is a valuable item for all New Citizens as well as for any adult who's had a "whole word" education. I give a copy to any new colleagues from a non-English speaking country.

I was surprised to discover how many common proverbs and phrases
are confounding to high school freshman. This book has helped me to better understand the cultural awareness that these
students have not yet acquired. It has also been a useful
tool for working to bridge that gap.

I bought this for my nine year old granddaughter. Since I have the adult version and really like it, I thought she may enjoy a book that you don't have to read cover to cover or chapter by chapter. She enjoyed this book so much that it was the book she chose to take on vacation with her. There is so much to learn on each page.

This book is exactly what it claims to be: a DICTIONARY. It is a huge, giant list of terms and phrases, organized by subject area. The explanations are extremely brief. But, as with all dictionaries, it is absolutely no fun to read. Nobody would ever snuggle up with this book and a hot cup of tea...ever.

Now I hate to penalize a book for being exactly what it set out to be, so I harbor some guilt over my 3-star rating. It's a 5-star dictionary. But the product description didn't really stress the "dictionary" part, so I was actually expecting this to somehow be an all-in-one, abridged version of the Core Knowledge curriculum books. It is not.

If you want a reference book that you can set on your shelf for the times when you'd like to look up an unfamiliar term or phrase, then you should buy this book. And this book would be especially useful, in this way, for recent immigrants and American high-school or middle-school students.

On the other hand, if you want a book you can casually read through to learn something new or interesting...this is not appropriate for that. Hirsch's Core Knowledge curriculum books for PreK-6 are great, and they're fun to read (or at least fun enough). So if you're a parent who is buying something to read with kids, buy those instead. If you're an American adult looking to round out your knowledge, you might try The Intellectual Devotional by Kidder and Oppenheim.

i have the older versions, and now have the latest. I keep one in my office, one by my computer, one on my coffee table. Always ready to look something up. Don't know how i managed before.

A refresher course for all the names and dates from
high school. I bought it because i was in an improv acting class
and it behooved me to know all the references people were making,
and to add my own trivia too.

I had the first edition and now the second edition is equally as enlightening. This is a valuable book,

This book is in great condition and it arrived on time. I'm very happy with my purchase.