Customer Reviews

Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was recommended to me by another mom whose child also has Asperger's Syndrome. These kids just don't get idioms or nuances of the spoken language among other things. This is a well-written, fun book for ALL kids. My two sons(11 and 9 years) LOVE having me read several of the idioms each night. It is a ritual at this point! I read them the idiom and the sentence and they try to guess the meaning. The definitions and history are really fun and fascinating. I recommend this book to all kids!

I teach fifth grade in a school with a high level of English Language Learners. We learned an idiom each week and this book gives the origin of the idiom, which is what really hooked my students to learning about them. I have bought 3 of these books now for fellow teachers!

I really would LOVE to recommend this book for all of people who are learning English as a second language and hope to know English idioms. I am from Korea, but now I am staying in N.C. to learn English. I was looking for some books that could helps me to understand the meaning of idioms because sometimes it was too difficult for me to figure out what they mean. This book has more than 700 idioms with examples, meanings and origins. The origins help me to remember the idioms easier. After I read some, I finally understand why people use idioms in particular situations and I feel like I will never forget them. It may not really helpful for academic courses or daily conversation, but it is easy to read anytime and it is good for FUN! Unless I am older than twenty, this book is fun enough! And especially, this is cheaper than others. So, I'd like to say just buy and read. I am 99% sure that buying this book is going to be a good choice!

By third grade, most students can READ anything you put in front of them, but we sometimes forget that figurative language is something that clouds the comprehension of otherwise simple text. This book gives clear explanations of idioms found in everyday language and gives their origin (which is very interesting). My 3rd grade class uses this resource often to look up idioms they come across in their reading. But they also like to look through it just for fun! It's very user-friendly.

I had been trying to find a book of idioms that listed the ones commonly used by Americans. Some other books just overwhelm you with thousands of idioms that nobody ever uses anymore. When I received this book, I was pleasantly surprised; I knew approximately 90% of the idioms. This is so much more practical to use in my class. Plus, I like the explanations of their origins, although I sometimes question its accuracy. Either way, it's a fun and useful book to use. Very user friendly.

I work at a library in Brooklyn, and I purchased this book for a friend coming from Japan to learn English in NYC. This is a fun way to learn the language. I enjoy the descriptions of the origins of these idioms. I can't recommend this enough!!

I gave this book to my 12-year-old niece for Christmas, and it was by far her favorite present. She began to read it immediately upon opening it, and frequently read aloud idioms and their meanings she found interesting. It remains one if the best gifts I have ever given her. She enjoys writing poetry, and I knew she would be interested in the idioms of our language. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in language, even if they are not especially interested in idioms, or may not even know what an idiom is. The book is written so well that almost anyone will be drawn into it.

...and has trouble with language and reading comprehension. We read one or two of these at the dinner table and it always leads to more discussions and life lessons. It's great for our younger son too. It's well written and interesting. My husband and I have learned things too...like the origins of a lot of those funny sayings and how they came to be part of our language today.

This book is good for teachers! It gives you the meaning of the idiom and the origin, if available. It's neat to learn how they came to be. I've been surprised by some that I thought meant one thing but had an entirely different meaning.

This is a good book for middle grade students to consult, as well as to browse through for the sheer fun of it. There are about three idioms per page. Each is used in a sentence, and then the meaning of the expression is explained. After that, the origin of the phrase is given. The section on origins is always the longest of the three parts, and usually it's the most fun because kids get to learn custom and language and social situations from previous eras and centuries. However, I sometimes feel in reading the section on origins that the explanation of origins is not as accurate as is that from the [adult] Dictionary of Idioms, published by Houghton Mifflin.