THE DORLING KINDERSLEY CHILDREN'S ILLUSTRATED DICTIONARY

This is a visually exciting but basically unhelpful reference book for children. Aimed at an audience from early readers to preteens, the dictionary suffers from schizophrenia. Why, for example, does McIlwain give a pronunciation guide for some words—like ``yawn''—and not the nearby, and more difficult, ``yacht''? He provides pictorial definitions of ``shoe'' and ``hat,'' ``deciduous'' and ``obstinate,'' but leaves out many illustrations in between. The pictures themselves are limiting; they are often unenlightening, and they prevent the author from attempting more difficult concepts. And some of them seem completely arbitrary: ``Sense'' is illustrated with a girl talking on a telephone. Finally, the dictionary is inconsistent. Although it claims to give all the definitions for the words it provides, it doesn't always follow through. ``Hatch'' is only explained as a verb; ``herd'' only given as a noun. Basically a mess. (Reference. 7-11)