Customer Reviews

Vocabulary Cartoons: Word Power Made Easy

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is a goldmine if you are trying to teach vocabularyto middle schoolers. I tried the first set of ten words with my students and when we were finished they asked, "When are we going to do more?" I purchased the matching blackline masters from the company and turned them into "mini-posters" which are hung around my room. Many students (even the ones I don't teach!) enter my room and ask, "When are you going to put up more? We know all of these!" Keep in mind that I had at least 50 on the wall when this was asked! But the true kicker is when a student viewed "The hamper scampered to the finish line" and said, "Wow, He's throwing out all his clothes!" A must-have for many laughs during learning!

i have personally talked with other teachers who conducted research on the vocabulary cartoon books and the claims made by the authors are completely as represented. Memory aids of both visual and rhyming association mnemonics provide an entertaining and rapid way to learn and retain new words. If there is a better way to build vocabulary I have never found it in my eighteen years of teaching english. Samantha Ann Vogt

The so-called "elementary" edition of Vocabulary Cartoons is not elementary enough. "Ductile", "succor", and "capacious" are words whose meanings are more advanced than I was hoping for. I was also disappointed in the structure. I assumed from the title and from the cover information that words would be introduced through comic strip stories. Instead, the book is just a series of word-picture associations with no real story or funny taglines. It's probably a good book for junior high or high school students, but is above the elementary level.

I have been reading this book to our 9 & 6 year old and they love it. These are "big" words but the kids have fun with them because they enjoy the pictures and easy to understand definitions. The best part is they are retaining the meaning of the words. I highly recommend this book.

The concept is wonderful; however, I wish there had been information on the grade level this book was desinged for. I can use some of the cartoons, but most are more suitable for gifted and talented, upper elementary, and middle school students.

This is a great vocabulary supplement for our home school, for several age groups. The kids hardly notice they are learning yet retain all the words, and they enjoy it, too.

This book is a delight! Both this and it's sister version (Vocabulary Cartoons 2) are wonderful vocabulary builder starters before you drift off into harder works like "The Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder." That book sounds easy enough, but it's actually geared towards 12th graders and beyond.

These books are wonderful for visual learners, although, others might get something out of them. Building your vocabulary is a process, but the time spent will be well rewarded. A strong vocabulary helps everything, including foreign language and math skills. As you delve into harder works, you'll be learning Latin and Greek roots which build excellent decoding skills for standardized tests.

These books are perfect for summer education. You want your kids to enjoy themselves, however, it doesn't hurt to move ahead academically either. These materials -- and ones like them -- are fun summer pleasure readers. And they'll learn something along the way. Adults will likely enjoy them too!

No one cares about your education more than you do. Fortunately, we live in the day and age where materials just keep getting better and better. So supplement, supplement, supplement. Have no fear: it can actually be fun. A+

I have looked many methods in memorizing words for my daughter, and only found that they are either useless or unsustainable. Even though we have learned the new words one day, we often forgot them the next. That is because we have not learned the best use of our mind for memorization. According to psychological principles, human memorize pictures much better than letters. The wonder of this book is to help you remember words in pictures through magic links (words you know). For example, the word Aspire is linked to an easier word Retire as they have similar pronunciation. Then a cartoon shows a funny guy Jim dreaming (aspire) about retiring on the beach... The mnemonic method makes better use of our mind strength; hence it is effective in learning new words. My daughter and I tried Word Smart series, too. This book definitely offers better methods. The cartoons make the whole learning experience fun.

Since my daughter started using this book, her word learning interest is high. Much ahead of her grade level, she often gets on the honor roll in Beestar online word tests. I highly recommend this book.

I like the concept and the method. I tried it with a few words, and it really seemed to work. However, some reviewers had suggested this as good preparation for the GRE (and many suggested it for the SATs). I was so disappointed when I got the book and had to get to page 68 before I found a word I didn't know. Granted, I am a reasonably well educated adult, but I don't think my vocabulary is unusually impressive. Who wouldn't know words like "shoddy", "transpire", "abduct", "elegant", and "inhabit"? There are not more than 10 words tough words among the 250 or so presented. When I took a sample GRE test recently, it included words like insouciant, sybarite, artifice, churl, obsequious, tendentious, calumniate, caviler, incentiousness, perspicuity, libertine, etc. There is nothing approaching that level of difficulty in this book. Definitely don't get this to prep for the GRE or the GMAT. I haven't taken the SAT in a long time, so I'll defer to those who know the word lists on the SAT better than I do, but I have a hard time believing that the makers of the SAT consider "survive", "dismantle", and "fetch" to be the sorts of difficult words they want to test. This books seems to be better for elementary/middle school words...?

I homeschool 3rd and 5th grade boys and have really enjoyed using Vocabulary Cartoons. It's one subject that I never have to beg them to do. I have the 3rd grader doing one page a day and the 5th grader 2 a day which is not much. They really enjoy the cartoons and play on words to help them remember what the vocabulary words mean. It's a subject that they've taken on to do independently which is a big help to me. The Review tests every so often help me to determine if they are really absorbing these words or not and the ease of layout is great for the kids.