Vocabulary Cartoons from New Monic Books uses cartoons and rhymes to make learning vocabulary fun. This book contains 210 vocabulary words for the 3rd through 6th grade level. By associating the word with a rhyme and cartoon image, students (particularly visual learners, ESE, and ADD) retain the meaning of a word much more easily. The book also includes 21 review quizzes to help children reinforce what they have learned.
According to the publisher, Vocabulary Cartoons:
“Boosts verbal standardized test scores, akes learning fun with brain-friendly mnemonics, and students learn 72% more with 90% retention.”
To get a better idea of what Vocabulary Cartoons is like, take a look at this sample:
What did I think?
I am aware that our family is very selective in the things we expose our children to. It is what we feel is best for our family, but I understand that not everyone has set the same boundaries that we have. So please read this with that in mind…
The overall concept of Vocabulary Cartoons is excellent. However, I was disappointed with some of the imagery they chose. For example, to explain the word “hoax,” they used two pictures. In the first, there is someone dressed up as a ghost yelling, “Boooo” at another boy. In the second picture, the “ghost” is laying on the ground with stars around his head, with the other boy standing next to him holding a baseball bat.
The authors of this book are quite clever to come up with some great ways to convey vocabulary words, so I found myself wishing they had gone in a different direction for a number of the cartoons. They chose to associate “dread” with a terrified child in bed surrounded by monsters and a skeleton, “wary” with a child in bed being grabbed by a giant, hairy hand, etc. These are just a few examples. The word that comes to mind is unnecessary. Because of the number of cartoons that I consider inappropriate, I did not care for the book.
With that said, there are a lot of the cartoons that are excellent, clever, and well done. So with this particular book, I think it comes down to what you are comfortable with for your family.
Vocabulary Cartoons is available for purchase for $12.95. It is a good quality, paperback book, and I believe this is a fair price. New Monic Books has a whole line of vocabulary resources for both students (3rd-12th grade) and teachers. To see all that they have to offer, visit their website.
To see what other Crew members thought of this book, visit the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog.
Disclosure: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a copy of this book free of charge for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received, and all opinions stated are my own.
