Customer Reviews

Thorndike Barnhart Children's Dictionary: Medallion Edition

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

 

 

My fourth grade daughter struggles to "look up" words in a dictionary. The small print and cluttered format frustrated her to tears. Then we stumbled upon this treasure. The clean typeface, blue colored entry words, and generous use of white space, made this dictionary easy to use. We gave a copy to the LD classroom teacher at her school. The teacher was thrilled - students find this dictionary much more "user friendly" than those provide by the school.

I bought this dictionary when my daughter was in kindergarten. It has many pictures (both illustrated and photos) that drew her interest. We've looked for words in it together. Now that she has started in second grade, she is able to look up words for herself. The explanations are clear and easily understood by a second grader.

This dictionary also has additional features that I know will serve well into the upper elementary years. "Word story" explains the origin of certain words; "Synonym Study" gives a comparison of words that are close in meanings and gives examples of usage. "Word Power" gives the
"Usage Note", "Spelling Note", "Pronunciation Note" are scattered throughout this dictionary. "Did you know?" and "Have you heard?" also give additional facts.

The Reference Section at the end of the dictionary contains a Map of the United States, a Map of the World, The Solar System, Weights and Measures, Facts about the 50 States.

I think this is one of the best dictionary available for an elementary school student.

good looking book but words are very limited. I couldn't even find from it some words shown up on my first grader son's book. I would need to buy a higher level one very very soon. You can read this as a book because it has lots of fun information. But you will be very disappointed if you use it really for a dictionary, even for a first grader.

This is great for grades 1-5. Our children will look something up and get entranced with the pictures that lead them to other new and curious words. If there is not a word in there that we need, we go to the next one up...the Thorndike-Barnhardt Junior Dictionary. This dictionary has been consistently useful to us as a starter, with big bold print and clear pictures...helping our children to become accustomed to using it and learning with it.

My fourth grade daughter struggled to "look up" words. Dictionaries she could use often didn't contain the words she needed. Others were so visually confusing she would give up in frustration. Then we stumbled upon this treasure. With a clean type face, contrasting color for entry words, and intellegent use of white space, she could finally find the word she needed by herself. We donated a copy to the LD classroom at her school. The teacher was thrilled - none of the dictionaries provided by the school were as "user friendly"!

This children's dictionary is colorful and looks fun. Though it is a hefty dictionary, I have been frustrated by the lack of words in it. It seems most of the time when my son asks me the meaning of a word, we don't find it in this dictionary when we try to look it up. More often than not, we end up having to consult another dictionary.

The other thing is, I was disturbed by at least one definition. Compare these meanings for the word "meek":

*The New Thorndike Barnhart Children's Dictionary (1998): Giving up too easily; too shy or humble.

*Noah Webster American Dictionary of the English Language (1828): 1. Mild of temper; soft; gentle; not easily provoked or irritated; yielding; given to forbearance under injuries. Ex. Now the man Moses was very meek, above all men. Num.12. 2. Appropriately,humble, in an evangelical sense; submissive to the divine will; not proud, self-sufficient or refractory; not peevish and apt to complain of divine dispensations. Christ says, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls." Matt.11. Ex. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matt.5.

I do not like the direction this publisher is taking language, and therefore cannot recommend this particular children's dictionary.

This has been an excellent source of knowledge for my now 13 year old son. We purchased this when Nathan was about 10 years old and he has loved it very much. He still uses it for homework and I've even picked it up from time to time to browse through simply because of it's open layout and ease of reading to learn a little between commercials while watching TV. I will say Nathan uses the internet now more and more for homework and research but it's still great for a quick lookup if he doesn't know hte meaning of a word.