Book Description

Following the success of 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know, the editors of the American Heritage® Dictionaries have developed this new book of 100 words tailored especially to high school freshmen. This second book in the 100 Words series focuses on the kinds of words that a successful middle school graduate can learn from rigorous coursework in a variety of subjects and that nearly every freshman will encounter over the course of the school year.
The words have been chosen with various criteria in mind. Some represent key concepts in important areas of the curriculum, while
others are more familiar in meaning but present challenges of spelling
or usage. All are words that students can expect to see regularly in their high school reading and beyond. And each word is fully defined as well as shown in typical contexts with example sentences and quotations, many of which are taken from award-winning authors such as Harper Lee, George Orwell, Katherine Paterson, and John Knowles.
Together, these 100 words represent the increasingly sophisticated and complex vocabulary that freshmen must master as they continue their education at the next level. To learn them is not only to gain useful knowledge — it is to step into a broader world. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Only if you use in conjunction with the videos
I bought this cards thinking that they had true photographs of the actual objects. Instead, the animals are the stuffed creations from the videos and not photos of real animals at all. I thought this was very disappointing, especially since I loved the concept of the different languages on the cards. I think this set is only useful when used with the videos.

Warped
The concept for these cards is great, but I do not recommend you buy them. The pictures of the animals are not of animals at all, but of stuffed toys that barely even resemble the animals "depicted." Children would be confused by, for example, a frog that barely even resembles a real frog. I pulled all of the "warped" cards and have used the remaining ones with my daughter.

Best Baby Einstein item I've bought!!!
My son and I absolutely love these cards. It's very educational and my son spoke his first word as soon as I pointed to one card. The quality is great; each card is laminated to last you many years. All the items in the cards are found in other Baby Einstein videos/dvds. I especially love the teaching aides and words in various languages on the back of the cards to help parents use the cards effectively. I found that it's not only educational for the child but for the parent as well. ... Read more

Book Description

This special retelling of The Wizard of Oz contains within it 1850 SAT-type vocabulary words, which appear in bold type throughout the story. At the bottom of each page are thorough but easy-to-understand definitions and funny or informative illustrative sentences for each of the highlighted words. Includes index. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Innovative and Fun Vocabulary Builder
By weaving vocabulary words into the classic story of "The Wizard of Oz," Mark Phillips enables readers to greatly increase their vocabulary in a fun way, while eliminating the drudgery so commonly associated with the standard approaches. Because you're engrossed in the story, it's easy to forget you're actually learning.

An aspect of this book which makes it especially user-friendly is that all definitions for the vocabulary words (which are bold-faced and footnoted) can quickly be found at the bottom of the page they appear on. This is in sharp contrast to other books of this type which force the reader to constantly turn to the back of the book, something no one wants to do when they're in the midst of reading.

The definitions, themselves, are extremely helpful as they are always clear and concise, and oftentimes witty and educational. (You'll learn a lot of the history you forgot just by reading them!) And whenever there might be a question, pronunciation is made clear.

This book is great for those who are studying for the SAT's and would rather not rotely memorize lists of vocabulary words, or for anyone who simply wants to build their vocabulary in an absorbing and fun way. Most importantly, having the words already in context makes remembering them a whole lot easier. Highly recommended!

A must read for everyone!
Mark Phillips uses a universallly familiar tale in "The Wizard of Oz", and retells it substituting challenging vocabulary words, for the language the book was originally written in. This is performed masterfully, without losing any of the context of the original story, while still instituting a new verbal element in almost every sentence. This unique method creates a lasting effect, allowing vocabulary to seamlessly enter your psyche. Mark calls on his own incisive wit on the bottom of each page, where he defines each word that has been added, and goes on to add yet another memorable example of the words usage. This creates a doubly indelible impression, allowing for immediate delivery of new words into your everyday language. Impress your friends, ace your SAT's, or just enjoy reading on a higher level, as this book truly carries your language mastery to the next level. A MUST READ FOR EVERYONE!

The best vocabulary book available
I've seen many vocabulary books -- those that contain lists of thousands of words, and those that imitate Phillips' technique. The imitators are all (as of this writing) cr*p. Many of them are quite useful if you regard "book", "chair", "indirect", etc. to be vocabulary words. I hope that Phillips comes out with another book of more advanced words for the ultimate GRE preparation.

The only problem I have with the book is that it needs to be larger. Sometimes the words come at you so quickly that they lie adjacent to one another -- in some cases three at a time!

Great idea
This book is a excellent idea and it works! The only comment I have is that sometimes many similar words are used at the same point in the story (e.g. listless, enervating, langour). This makes the reading not so interesting and the definitions confusing since they're so similar. Another example, "trite cliche". Perhaps this is the authors intention, to group the synonyms. But maybe greater separation of the words will help the reader better appreciate the nuances of their meanings.

Works like magic
I purchased The Wizard of Oz nearly two months ago and it has given me fabulous results. Every day, whether I hear it on TV or in person, I recognize at least one of my new words. My vocabulary has extended tremendously and I could not be happier. I previously tried many methods. I even tried reading the entire thesaurus! Yet my vocabulary did not seem to make any progress. This book works like magic. It would be great if schools all over the nation became aware of this and bought them for every student. I strongly recommend this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Give kids a head start on a lifetime of reading. The best-selling My First Word Book and My First Word Board Book have been highly acclaimed by parents and educators alike since they were first published. Now DK is adding to these two favorites with a line of First Word books that will entertain and educate youngsters for years to come. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

the book has too many illustrations; bad photographs
Though there are many worthwhile photographs in this book, I felt that many of them were indistinct to my 14-month old child. For example, a photograph of a pillow with pairs of animals on it, simply did not look like a "pillow" and a tube of toothpaste or container of talcum powder without a label or any coloring (re: a generic label) simply does not look like the article trying to be delineated. Also, the illustrations would have better left out, in my opinion--I believe that photographs of real objects should be maintained throughout the book. The actual photos of real animals in the "At the zoo" page, for example, look foolish beside the inferior "illustrations." Surely, photographs could have been obtained for animals such as tigers, buffalo, penguins, etc.

Also, the book seems like it's trying too hard at times. Unnecessary inclusions seemed quite prevalent, as if the "voluminous index" was the aim rather than, simply, a picture book for 0-3 year old children.

Some of the unnecessary inclusions include: cotton swabs (especially the way they are photographed), barette (looks atypical), soap frog (looks like a green frog toy), bubbles, lawnmover (photo would have been great, but illustration is not good), canes for the garden (they look like sticks of incense), traffic circle (another bad illustration), cygnet (swan=okay; cygnet=not okay, too sophisticated), no school bus (in " things that move"), tidal pool (bad illustration and unnecessary addition), "weather" illustrations behind children and bad illustrations re: "seasons"; also, "Actions" section and others with pictures of children doing things are too "chock-full" to be effective; etc.

Again, some photos are nice and my son truly enjoys the book--I'm just voicing some things that I would have omitted and/or done differently for the overall aesthetics of the book. In the end, it seems "overly-ambitious" and some photographs are taken from too far away (the plate of rice is indistinct as is the floor mat, among other items). Also, the colors of "everyday objects" are too colorful to be recognized as objects that one might have in their own home (red and/or black telephone, TV, teapot, placemat, dustpan, mixing bowl, broom, to name a few). Also, the ham looks like it's a week old. Very unappetizing.

Other than all that, the book is quite good. Thank you.

1000 vivid,colorful, photographs of words in a child's world
This book has been wonderful for our little girl who we adopted from Romania at age 3 1/2 years. She only spoke three words in Romanian. This book has helped her make sense of her new surroundings by seeing photgraphs and learning the words. She loves to find the foods, animals and toys that she likes and to name them. I would highly recommend this book for every child as well as second language learner. There is no guessing about what the pictures are as almost everything is real. The few drawings are very clear and understandable. There is a Spanish version that gives the Spanish and the English word. I am an elementary principal and I ordered multiples of this book for each of my kindergarten through second grade classrooms. 90% of our students have Spanish as a first language so it has been great to share with our families. Our parents use it as a reference, too, to learn English!

You Must Buy This Book
I bought this book for my first child in 1995 and now my second child loves it just as much. EVERY page is taped up because they looked at it so much and both were very young so they would tear the pages as well. They both were probably 7-8 months old when they first fell in love with it. The revised edition is similar but yet very different; it is definately going under my tree this Christmas! Worth every penny and then some!!

Young minds love it!
We have had the book since our first boy was born. It has been literally torn to shreads since he has read it more than any other book. I am continually amazed as he pulls it out of the pile again and again to look at all the pictures. Kids love details and he notices them all. The book is full of intricate pictures and he and his brother love to pore over it for a long time. I came online just now to buy another copy since ours has lasted only three years and he still loves it. Maybe the publisher would consider a version made of rip-stop nylon?

My First Word Book-Excellent Gift
This book is a fantastic book for a First or Second Year birthday gift...just right for those little minds learning so much and saying so much...I give this to all of my friends children. It is beautiful to boot. Enjoy! ... Read more

Book Description

Thirty popular expressions such as "straight from the horse's mouth" and "white elephant" are amusingly explained and illustrated. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

This books "spells" success!
Another wonderful addition to the "Painless" series, this little handbook is a must-have for students, parents, and teachers who want to make spelling easier for themselves or others. Let's face it, spelling isn't exactly high-interest learning - but the "Painless" guide truly does make learning easy and nowhere near as boring as the typical spelling books we all endured in school. The examples are fresh and interesting, and the explanations are clear...and best of all, this guide really does make learning/teaching spelling a PAINLESS experience! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Quality Control Needed - CD's have grammar - not vocabulary
I ordered this product twice. The first time, I received a package wrapped in celophane...seemingly untampered with. However, CD #1 was missing. And, CD #2 did not include any vocabulary...just grammar rules. Although it was labeled "Word Smart", I think that the manufacturer recorded "Grammar Smart" on the CD, a completely different product. The enclosed booklet listed the vocabulary words that the CDs were supposed to cover. However, there was no vocabulary words on the CD....and I still can't understand how CD #1 would be missing...

Thinking this might be a "fluke" accident. I ordered this product a second time. This time, the 2 CD's were enclosed. However, once again, the narrator welcomed me to the world of "Grammar Smart"....same results as above. There were no vocabulary words on the CD's...just rules for grammar.

Quality control is needed. I was very surprised to find that the product is mismarked. You definitely can't judge this product by its cover.

Did any one else have this experience ? Maybe I was the recipient of a bad batch of CD's ? ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Vocab Blues
We use this as a school vocab book as freshmen. Since all of the words in the section basically mean the same thing it is hard to be tested on them... It may teach new words to you but none that most people i know have never or will ever use in a normal sentence

good vocab builder
It was a good book for improving vocabulary. I only wished they had more words and less exercises. The exercises weren't that helpful, but I liked how they categorized words so we could have a better understanding of it. This book is great for all ages, as long as you want to build vocabulary. ... Read more

Book Description

The Princeton Review's bestselling Smart Series is a valued resource for concise, basic-building exercises for both students and professionals. Now The Princeton Review offers a new series of Smart titles for kids. Word Smart Junior includes over 500 words grade school students need to know by the time they enter high school. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

GREAT FUN!
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!

Great for readers who like to expand their vocabulary
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.

Excellent concept, but beware
I bought this book for my third grader and the vocabulary is a good level. My child already knows many of the words but is learning new ones from this book. However, parents should be made aware that they might consider some of the content inappropriate for their children. I personally do not care to enlighten my child on the concept of the 60s hippie culture and all that that entails. Fortunately for me, I glanced ahead while reading aloud and saw the word cohabitation so I was able to avoid a discussion of shacking up. The characters also flippantly use the name of the Christian diety, as in "Oh, my ...." As I said, it is a great concept but read WITH your child if you object to the moral values discussed above.

My elementary school age kids love this.
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.

Word Smart Review
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. ... Read more

Book Description

In this delightful picture-alphabet game book for young children each consonant and vowel comes alive with its own unique qualities in the world—a Cat naps on a carpet conjuring cows and conch shells, clocks and crows, cubes and columns—a Girl gives grain to geese in a gated garden, watched over by giraffes and grasshoppers, gondolas and grapes, gourds and a geodesic globe—Mermaids muse in the moonlight under mountains surrounded by monkeys and moose, minarets and mice, mosquitoes and a menorah. ... Read more

Book Description

Since 1836, children have been delighted by the McGuffey Readers' exotic adventures, exciting stories, beautiful poems, and funny fables. This companion volume was revised in 1879 to conform in orthography, pronunciation, and spelling to the latest edition of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. The Eclectic Spelling-Book was designed to teach students the English language not by appealing merely to memory, but by associating each lesson with some principle of sound, meaning, or accent. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Homeschool Review
Last year we used the Spalding method of spelling, and I think it is a geat way to learn spelling. The biggest hurdle to implementing that program for my son was the randomness of the words with no connection to what he is reading or learning in his daily life. This was a difficult hurdle for an intuitive learner like him to overcome. The McGuffy Speller lists words with common sounds. Thus you will have words like fair, and fare together on one list, teaching the child the different ways one sound can be spelled. I think this is easier for a child to deal with than having to decide as in Spalding which spelling goes with the same sound. In McGuffy the sounds are introduced with the words and this is less frustrating than a child having to feel he should somehow know which spelling to use: are, or air. If you tried Spalding, and liked the phonetic approach, but don't think you will continue in it, and are looking for a similar but more conventional approach, this may be a good choice for you. I think it takes the best of phonics, memorization, and word patterns, and combines them into a great word list that can be used for weekly spelling tests. Personally, I am not using even this method this year as I believe the memorization and detachment from hands on learning just won't stick with my son. If your child doesn't balk at weekly spelling tests, learning the words in this book will prepare him for college level reading and writing. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

good for english class
this is a pretty good book to study/learn vocabulary at a high school level ... Read more

Book Description

This all-new thesaurus, created for students in middle grades and junior high school, contains synonyms, antonyms, related and contrasted words, and idiomatic phrases.Brief definitions for shared meanings and abundant usage examples help students find the right word every time. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Excellent book for adoptive parents of Russian children!
This picture book was great because we could look at it together with our Russian son. He helped us pronounce the words in Russian as we taught him the words in English. I highly recommend it for parents going to Russia to adopt. Very comprehensive. Great illustrations. (I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 only because it was lacking accents in the pronunciation guide; hence I didn't know which syllable to accent for best pronunciation. I would recommend that the next edition show which syllable is accented; then it would certainly merit 5 stars!)

two major shortcomings
As a beginning student of Russian I thought this book might be a good vocabulary builder, and for the most part that is true. The illustrations aren't always sufficient to identify the word depicted, but there is an English translation in the back so that's only a minor annoyance. Another minor annoyance is that words are given in either singular or plural form, whereas it would have been nice if both were included.

However, I found two major shortcomings relating to pronunciation. One that has been mentioned in the other reviews is the lack of anything indicating stress, which could easily have been done with either accent marks on the word itself or by capitalizing the accented syllable in the phonetic rendering (PEESma).

The other major shortcoming is that certain vagaries of pronunciation aren't taken into account, such as the devoicing of a consonant at the end of a word (e.g. the word for iron would be more correctly rendered as "ootyook" rather than "ootyoog") and the assimilation of consonants when they occur together ("foodbol" rather than "footbol").

I still would recommend this book but I also recommend getting a good dictionary that shows word stress and making sure you learn the rules of pronunciation and take them into account.

I Didn't Buy the Book Because...
...the words are not stressed. For beginners who don't have a native Russian speaker around to pronounce the words for them, it is absolutely essential that each word show the vowel that is stressed. Normally, in textbooks for beginning Russian students, this is done by placing a stress mark over the stressed vowel. Unfortunately, this book does not do that. Like English, Russian words are pronounced quite differently depending on the placement of the primary stress. The reader of this book will not know, for example, how the word "aftobus" ("bus" in English) should be pronounced: AHf-to-boos, ahf-TO-boos, or ahf-to-BOOS. The correct pronunciation is ahf-TO-boos. No doubt most American speakers, analogizing from "automobile" (AW-tuh-muh-beel), would pronounce it AHf-to-boos. And is the word for "watch" pronounced "CHAH-see" or "chih-SEE"? The latter is closer to the correct pronunciation. But without a sress mark to show this, how is one to know? In addition, in conversation most speakers of Russian nowadays pronounce the consonant "shch" not as sh + ch (as in "freSH CHeese"), but as a fronted "shsh" (as in "I wiSH SHe wouldn't do that"). Although the concept of the dictionary is good, because of the lack of stress marks I don't think it's worth buying.

Absolutely Wonderful
Finally a language book that teaches practical vocabulary that isn't always found in the textbooks.

With large comic book style pages, vocabulary items are depicted in a color drawing that covers most of the page. On the page borders are small individual depictions of the vocabulary items with the name beneath it in Russian, there are no English translations (except in the glossary) because none are ever needed.

For example; the first page shows a color drawing of various rooms in a house. One room is the bath. The border of the page will have a picture of a toilet and its name beneath in Russian, then it is shown in the context of the bathroom without a label so the reader can self quiz.

An excellent resource!, good for beginner to intermediate level readers.

Wonderful Illustrations, Keeps Attention!
My husband is a native Russian speaker and speaks only this language to our 2 yr. old. This book has ended up being our son's FAVORITE book. He loves the illustrations (so do I) and will look at one page for a good 10 minutes. I helps me brush up on my Russian also.
I must add, however, that if you are a BEGINNER to the Russian language this book won't teach you how to correctly pronounce the words. Words are spelled out phoenetically but do not include any clues as to pronunciation. ... Read more

Book Description

These innovative learn-to-spell books are colorful, educational, and fun. A unique lift-the-flap spelling tool features a choice of brightly colored picture cards and a row of snappy alphabet cards, in an ingenious double-spiral binding. Select a picture card, then flip the alphabet cards to spell a familiar word. Then flip the picture card over to reveal a simple definition. Three-letter word and four-letter word versions allow kids to reinforce spelling and alphabet skills as their abilities grow. A terrific tool for the home or classroom, and a great way to educate and entertain.Durable double-spiral binding keeps parts from getting lost.Perfect for taking on trips.Supplementary sentence-building guide. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Spelling Made Fun
I Can Spell Words With Three Letters is a wonderful book! My son (who is 4, but doesn't talk yet) loves to spell his favorite words with this flip book. I really like how it contains three alphabets for kids to flip through to spell with so that even if they can't write yet, they can still practice spelling. I also like how the word is on the back of each picture so the kids can check their work. My only concern is that the flip cards seem flimsier than they were in my original copy, but I like that the book now has a velcro closure so that the cards won't get bent as easily. But it is well worth the money. In fact we got our second copy to give as a gift.

I Can Spell Words With Three Letters
This book is great! Before this book, my daughter was able to recognize letter sounds but did not understand the concept of linking the sounds together to make a word. By flipping three different piles of the alphabet, she was able to see, and therefore understand, this concept. I recommend this book to any pre-readers.

I Can Spell Words With Three Letters
My 3-yr-old is learning to spell using this book! The spelling possibilities are endless and she enjoys playing with it alone. She is instantly gratified when she flips the page to see that she has spelled a word correctly.

Excellent Car Book
My Kindergardener is just learning to read and write. This book has been great for him to "play with" when I can not sit with him or can not look at the pages with him. He has learn several words and had fun at the same time. ... Read more

Book Description

Get ready to put some charisma in your conversations, and to dazzle your friends and teachers with dynamic discourse.Bridget, Barnaby, Babette, and fat cat Beauregard are back in a brand-new venture as they try to stop the scoundrel aliens Vargas and Gorgas in their crusade to destroy earth.Along the way they'll have to elude dangerous predators like angry dinosaurs and abominable aliens.

While you are enjoying the exciting story and the many exotic places it takes you (like the foreboding Volcano of Doom and the long-ago Mesozoic era), you'll be learning tons of cool vocabulary words with now exertion whatsoever.That's right.It won't feel like work at all!You'll even be a step ahead of the game in preparing for a certain test that's waiting right around the corner, the SAT (maybe you've heard of it already?) ... Read more

Reviews (2)

children need this book
Along with the first book, this book has the best new-word learning assistance per time spent. The only other way is to read copiously and you how much time that would take. The stories are almost fairy-tale like but I loved them. This is a must have. I bought a dozen for all my junior relatives.

A good book to read
I had been trying every book to increase my vocablulary until I found Word Smart. Then I purchased all the books and some of the cassetts. It is really helpful to my studyings. I rememberd 100 words in ten days and saw about 40 of them appearing in Romeo and Juliet with annotations. It is indeed a good book and I have introduced it to my good friend already. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The best
The book made me apparent the words that i learned. It makes the person who does it want to talk inthe hard way. they will understand the words they never knewbefore. They also will improve in school. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

practice and make it your own!
This is a good book for students even for an adult who wants to brush up vocabulary. It's not a mere "word and a meaning" list, but you have chances to check yourself doing the excercise. We all know that building vocabulary is not a easy thing to do. Why not try this this time? ... Read more