The Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder

A retelling of the Wizard of Oz, focusing on about 1,850 vocabulary words in context.

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.

Library Journal

Phillips, who has written several other instructional works (e.g., Guitar for Dummies) and is a former SAT Verbal instructor, retells the well-known classic The Wizard of Oz by interspersing "big" words in an otherwise simply told story. The idea is to help readers increase their vocabulary by reading (and thus understanding) "difficult" words in the context of a familiar story. The result: a text that does not read naturally, of course, but in this case makes sense because the words under scrutiny stand out both on paper (they are printed in bold typeface) and in memory. As Phillips explains, this vocabulary builder is best suited for senior high school students preparing for the SATs but also for ESL students. The useful index, which lists all 1850 boldfaced words, is especially useful for revision purposes. Another helpful feature is that each word's definition, along with more usage examples, is conveniently placed at the bottom of the page on which the word appears. Although this original approach to vocabulary building is no substitute for wide reading, it is a more natural method than learning words from lists and makes for an encouraging start toward developing good reading habits. Most suitable for school and academic libraries.-Rebecca Bollen, North Bergen, NJ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.