Synopsis:
A silly book with a serious purpose—to help children recognize, remember, and really enjoy using a basic vocabulary of 1350 words. Written and illustrated by P. D. Eastman—with help from the Cat (Dr. Seuss)—this decades-old dictionary pairs words with pictures that carry their meaning, making it simple enough even for nonreaders to understand. A wacky cast of characters reappears throughout the book, making this perhaps the only dictionary in the world that is actually fun to read!
Review:
A decades-old dictionary that you can still use today (and know that children will love it) is an amazing testament to the genius of the Seuss stable. The roughly 12-per-page colored drawings are dated, of course--the humans far more than the animals, funnily enough--but they've aged in a way that adds to their charm rather than detracting from it. (Phonograph may take some explaining; ditto typewriter, which we recently heard described as "like a computer, only with paper instead of a screen.") The 1,350 words are well balanced between the obvious stuff--common nouns and verbs--and more abstract language, from about to yet. Each word is accompanied by a drawing and an illustrative sentence. Along the way, naturally, we meet a wacky menagerie of humans and animals: "Aaron the alligator making more machines," "Aunt Ada standing on her head," etc. (Ages 4 to 8) --Richard Farr
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