Customer Reviews

Thorndike-Barnhart Junior Dictionary

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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I'm a 5th grade teacher. I've used and compared many different dicitonaries. The Thorndike-Barnhart Junior Dictionary is the best by far that I've ever seen.

Recently I decided to buy dictionaries for my class. I looked at over 20 different student dictionaries. Some of the dictionaries I looked at were Merriam-Webster Children's Dictionary, MacMillan Dictionary for Students, American Heritage Student Dictionary, and Scholastic Children's Dictionary. None of these held a candle to the Thorndike-Barnhart Junior Dictionary. I took a list of over 200 words that my students couldn't find in our current dictionaries and I looked them up in each of the dictionaries I compared. There were two things I was looking for. First, I wanted to know which dictionary had most of these words. Second I wanted to know which dictionary struck the best balance defining the words in such a way that my students could understand them without loosing meaning or using langage that was too difficult for my students to understand. The Thorndike-Barnhart Junior Dictionary was the best in both categories by far.

There is also a Thorndike-Barnhart Intermediate Dictionary. It has the same words and definitions as this dictionary but also includes a bunch of extras (maps, lists, and such) but costs almost twice as much. If yo've got the money to spend, it might be worth it, but the price seemed high to me for what additional information it offered.

I wanted to get a more advanced dictionary for my 3rd grade son since the current Children's Dictionary he has often did not contain words we looked up. At first my Children's Dictionary search did not bring me to this book. But I read a review which recommended this dictionary. It was by a 5th Grade Teacher (Shannon Bradford), who also has her review here. I did my own comparisons of about 4 different dictionaries I found in my search. Using just the online reviews and descriptions, I decided to go with this one. When I received it, I was SO PLEASED! The book is so interesting. The beautiful color pictures and overall layout makes it interesting and fun to lookup words. Just flipping through it makes you want to stop and look at the pictures. I would have paid twice what I did for it. ...

I bought this based on a recommendation by another reader, and I am so glad I did! My 10 year old is actually reading it for enjoyment, and doesn't hesitate to look up words anymore. The fact that there are pictures for some of the entries makes it enjoyable for her too. It's a nice, hardcover book that will be passed on to my 8 year old as well.

This junior dictionary is ideal for 8 to 12 years old kids, ithas everything they need at that age. The dictionary is built in sucha colorfull way that is easy for them to find the words and their different meanings with examples, homographs, homophones, idioms and inflected forms. Pronunciation keys are presented at the botton of every right hand page. A new edition is required to update the new countries and world map. The price is a real bargain.

I bought this for my 9 year old daughter. She actually enjoys using it. It has a few pictures, but also has a lot of entries in it. I like using it myself. The definitions are easy to understand. I have two younger children so I think this dictionary will get a lot of use.

I bought this dictionary for my 8-year old. He has very good vocabulary and I wanted a dictionary that had words he actually had to look up but one that still had illustrations and pictures for it to be interesting to him. This completely fits the bill! The explanations are accessible to him and has been an excellent investment in what is his first dictionary.

Thanks very much to those of you who wrote detailed reviews about this dictionary. It made my decision easy, and I have been very pleased.

Just perfect! I bought another one at first coz this one was not available at Amazon. Then Amazon has it, so I asked if I may exchange to this one. They allowed me to return the other one and bought this one. Amazon's customer service is superb. That is why it is the ONLY on-line store I shop! I don't shop at any other on-line store at all!! I think customer service is the key for on-line store. Back to this dictionary--easy explanations, big bold words, and some colorful pages. Just perfect.

This is a wonderful Dictionary! My son said they use the same one in his classroom at school.

I bought this dictionary to give to my grandchildren. It hasn't left my house yet and probably won't as I found it so useful for myself. It has tons of words and gives the meanings in excellent but in simple and brief terms. Most of the time that is just what I need. I have a giant dictionary for further clarification but rarely use now. Pictures are a wonderful addition too--even for us adults.