Bea Reviews The Dictionary of Difficult Words by Jane Solomon, Illustrated by Louise Lockhart

Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: April 30th, 2019
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository*  | Google | Kobo
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Blurb from goodreads:

What is a bumbershoot? Or a moonbow? And what does it mean when someone absquatulates...? Find out all this and more in the Dictionary of Difficult Words. Test your knowledge with more than 400 words to amaze, confuse, and inspire budding wordsmiths (and adults). All of the words featured in this book are difficult to spell, hard to say, and their meanings are obscure to most children (and most adults)! Written with simple, easy-to-understand definitions by lexicographer Jane Solomon, this dictionary celebrates the beauty of the English language for family trivia time spent around the printed page. (less)

My Thoughts:

I have always loved reading and browsing libraries and encyclopedias so when I saw this book on NetGalley, requesting it was a no-brainer.

This particular dictionary is aimed at children, teens and up. As a well-read adult, I found many of the words not actually difficult. But, happily for me, there were many words new to me and some of them were a challenge. For some children, many of these words would be difficult to know the meaning, or to pronounce, or to spell. Solomon provides easy to read pronunciations for each word and simple, clear definitions. Lockhart provides illustrations for many of the words and they are whimsical yet explanatory. They add both to the overall look of the book and to the definitions.

"The Dictionary of Difficult Words" is fun, entertaining, and educational. It's a good conversation starter and would be good for all sorts of word games. It's definitely a keeper.