Facts on File Junior Visual Dictionary

School Library Journal

Gr 2-6-- An edition of a book published in 1986 for adults--enlarged in size, reduced in content, and illustrated in color instead of black and white. The 22 sections contain computer-produced pictures of such objects as animals, houses, heavy machinery, the human body, the sky, the vegetable kingdom, etc. Each picture is bold, bright, and clearly labelled. The computer graphics are very nearly crystalline, but they do have a curiously two-dimensional look. The items may be accessed from a table of contents or from an impressively comprehensive index. This is not a visual dictionary in the classic sense, as is Greet's My First Picture Dictionary (Lothrop, 1970; o.p.), as there are no written definitions to accompany the pictures. The labels must suffice. This approach has its strengths and weaknesses. It's all very well to see a picture of a saxophone with all its parts painstakingly labelled, but a child (and some adults) might wonder just what this object does. The only clue here is that it's in the ``Music'' section. Also, the book shows its French origin in the machines found in ``Heavy Machinery;'' in some terms in the ``Sports'' section; and, most glaringly, in the road signs shown in the ``Symbols'' section, which resemble but differ significantly from ours. In the pictures of the human body that show a nude man and woman from the front and back, the woman's genitalia are labelled simply ``sex.'' This seems an odd circumlocution. Nonetheless, the book is useful for showing exactly how things (especially things mechanical) go together, and is practically unbeatable for browsing. In certain areas, the ``Eyewitness'' books (Knopf) may be preferable as they give more information. However, this would be a popular and practical addition to most school dictionary collections. --Ann Welton, University Child Development School, Seattle