Customer Reviews

Word Smart Junior: How to Build a Straight "A" Vocabulary

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4 star:		(1)
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I am 11 years old and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, both as a story and as a no-stress way to learn new vocabulary. I am actually using the many words I learned in the book ~ it's easy because of the manner in which the book is written! I even enjoyed the quizzes at the end of each chapter ~ they were fun. I would save this book for after I had done my other work (I am a homeschooler) because I enjoyed this book so much. It was my inspiration to get finished with the other things so I could get back to this story!

The book is about three kids and a cat who have worldwide (and outer space!) adventures that lead them away from their real goal, which is to find Bridget's parents. You learn the new vocabulary from reading it in the context of their conversations. No memorizing lists! Great fun!

I used to work as a professional SAT Reading coach, making big bucks; the key issue for most of my students was vocabulary. Rather, VOCABULARY. (The other is slowing down and thinking as--not after--they read.)

Many questions on the SAT reading section amount to vocabulary questions.

What this means is that if you want to improve your SAT scores, if you are an ambitious student trying to get into one of the top schools, there is no two ways about it: you have to study vocabulary.

And study vocabulary.

And study vocabulary.

You cannot study simply one book, or even one series of books. You have to study several series.

However, the Princeton Review Word Smart series is the best that I know of. You should start here. Even if you think you have a good vocabulary, start here just to be on the safe side, and you can move on later.

You would recommend studying any of the vocabulary books that I've ever seen--but I recommend mastering the Word Smart series. These really are by far the best--if you are shopping here, it probably means you need these books.

If you were one of my students, your parents paying lots of money, I would force you to master these books, and I would ride you like a horse until you did. And then your scores would come up, your parents would love me and tell all their friends, and I would get more jobs and more money. That's how it works.

Anyway, these are certainly the best vocabulary books on the market. Even if you're studying vocabulary for some other reason, these are probably still the best.

Good luck!

I am a 7th grader of a middle school, and this is what I think of this outstanding book. This book had a very interesting way of teaching... Instead of a textbook, this book was made into a chapter book with several excellent stories about adventures with three kids and a gargantuan, black cat. The stories were well put together and the advanced words fitted in perfectly. I shared my ideas with my family, and we bought more books of the same series. I think younger kids should just read the book for the stories if the words are a bit too complicated for them to remember, but I'm sure that they will enjoy it. Readers will no longer be oblivious about grammer. As a matter of fact, they might even excel in the field of grammer and writing. Anyway, to me, the words in the book were extremely easy to understand, because they were so well placed, that the context clues made the definitions very clear and obvious. There was also a glossary in the back that gave the definitions to the bold-faced words. Unfortunately, the glossary did not have definitions to all of the words, but if you have a dictionary, you should have no problem. Overall, this was a fantastic book leaving me craving for more.

I bought this tape for my elementary age niece and two nephews. They have played this tape for weeks every night at bed time. They even fight over who gets to listen to it in the car. All of their vocabulary had sky rocketed. They are using "big" words properly and have no problem correcting the adults when we use them wrong. The way the new words are weaved into the stories give the kids the handle to truly understand what the word is, and what the correct usage is for any given situation. My sister and I are so impressed with this tape. We wish there were more of these.

This book is a master piece. The exciting adventures of Barnaby, Babette, Bridget, and their cat body Beauregard turns the "boring" studies of vocabularies into a challenging game. Wordly Smart increases your amount of vocabularies largely. Without your knowing, you might just take your "game" to a whole new level.

This book is amazing. I am currently a student at Harvard University, and I will proudly admit that I learned most of the vocabulary I know today from these books. The story is genuinely interesting, and I actually enjoyed reading through them. Unlike many SAT vocab books, the words were also integrated smoothly into the story and were used in the correct context with the correct meanings. The glossary at the back of the book also did a great job explaining the meanings of all the words and gives example sentences for them as well. Those example sentences were so interesting that even after I had read the story through several times, I would still go back and read the glossary for fun.

I first read these books about 9 years ago. But I still remember the story clearly: a tale describing the adventures of three young teenagers (Bridget, Babette, and Barnaby) and their feline companion, Beauregard. I even still remember the obstacles they went through in trying to find Bridget's mom again (hippies, aliens, a four armed man referred to by some as Cannibal, etc). I might be rambling, but my point is that even 9 years after I read these books, I can still recall the plot easily and fondly. I must have read this book and its sequel dozens of times.

I cannot stress enough: this book is fantastic. Great story, and a great way to learn vocabulary.
Finally, I'd like to add that I got an 800 score on the reading/verbal portion of my SAT. I found the vocabulary sections easy because of this book.

I'm working with several students in junior high to help them increase vocabulary for the SSAT test. This book helps teach the new words in context and lets them learn in a way that is more familiar to them. Love the book!!!

Great stories! Great Vocabularies! Nothing to complain