The Firefly Visual Dictionary

Rating:
Summary: A feast for the eyes
Review: "The Firefly Visual Dictionary," by Jean-Claude Corbeil and Ariane Archambault, is full of detailed, full-color illustrations and extensive textual labels. Looking at the world around us, the book has a scope that ranges from the inner structure of an atom to the shapes of galaxies. The cover boasts that the dictionary contains 6,000 color entries and 35,000 terms. The items pictured include pure symbols, tangible man-made items, natural objects and living entities. At more than 900 pages long, the book is a hefty achievement.

This book is divided up into 17 chapters: Astronomy, Earth, Vegetable Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Human Being, Food and Kitchen, House, Do-It-Yourself and Gardening, Clothing, Personal Adornment and Articles, Arts and Architecture, Communications and Office Automation, Transport and Machinery, Energy, Science, Society, and Sports and Games. An index is included.

Yes, I'm sure people could complain about things that are left out or not covered in great enough detail, but overall this book is ambitious and comprehensive. If I could only give one book to an extraterrestrial visitor to help him/her/it become oriented to Earth, this would be it. Among the specific things covered are types of mushrooms, the inner parts of a toilet bowl, the anatomy of an umbrella, the structure of a Greek temple, the flags of the world, major North American road signs, the parts of a volleyball court, and much, much, more. This is one reference work which is not only informative and well organized, but a genuine work of art.

Rating:
Summary: A feast for the eyes
Review: "The Firefly Visual Dictionary," by Jean-Claude Corbeil and Ariane Archambault, is full of detailed, full-color illustrations and extensive textual labels. Looking at the world around us, the book has a scope that ranges from the inner structure of an atom to the shapes of galaxies. The cover boasts that the dictionary contains 6,000 color entries and 35,000 terms. The items pictured include pure symbols, tangible man-made items, natural objects and living entities. At more than 900 pages long, the book is a hefty achievement.

This book is divided up into 17 chapters: Astronomy, Earth, Vegetable Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Human Being, Food and Kitchen, House, Do-It-Yourself and Gardening, Clothing, Personal Adornment and Articles, Arts and Architecture, Communications and Office Automation, Transport and Machinery, Energy, Science, Society, and Sports and Games. An index is included.

Yes, I'm sure people could complain about things that are left out or not covered in great enough detail, but overall this book is ambitious and comprehensive. If I could only give one book to an extraterrestrial visitor to help him/her/it become oriented to Earth, this would be it. Among the specific things covered are types of mushrooms, the inner parts of a toilet bowl, the anatomy of an umbrella, the structure of a Greek temple, the flags of the world, major North American road signs, the parts of a volleyball court, and much, much, more. This is one reference work which is not only informative and well organized, but a genuine work of art.

Rating:
Summary: A feast for the eyes
Review: "The Firefly Visual Dictionary," by Jean-Claude Corbeil and Ariane Archambault, is full of detailed, full-color illustrations and extensive textual labels. Looking at the world around us, the book has a scope that ranges from the inner structure of an atom to the shapes of galaxies. The cover boasts that the dictionary contains 6,000 color entries and 35,000 terms. The items pictured include pure symbols, tangible man-made items, natural objects and living entities. At more than 900 pages long, the book is a hefty achievement.

This book is divided up into 17 chapters: Astronomy, Earth, Vegetable Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Human Being, Food and Kitchen, House, Do-It-Yourself and Gardening, Clothing, Personal Adornment and Articles, Arts and Architecture, Communications and Office Automation, Transport and Machinery, Energy, Science, Society, and Sports and Games. An index is included.

Yes, I'm sure people could complain about things that are left out or not covered in great enough detail, but overall this book is ambitious and comprehensive. If I could only give one book to an extraterrestrial visitor to help him/her/it become oriented to Earth, this would be it. Among the specific things covered are types of mushrooms, the inner parts of a toilet bowl, the anatomy of an umbrella, the structure of a Greek temple, the flags of the world, major North American road signs, the parts of a volleyball court, and much, much, more. This is one reference work which is not only informative and well organized, but a genuine work of art.

Rating:
Summary: More practical than the Ultimate Visual Dictionary
Review: I bought the Ultimate Visual Dictionary 2000 and had a lot of frustration. So a few months ago I bought the Firefly Visual Dictionary and found that it's more practical (sometimes). While the former book has more compact illustrations, it's not easy to find the words in the pictues through the indexes, and many of the terms it uses is latin, rather than plain English.

I read fictions and many cases I cannot picture the descriptions in the novels, and that's when I need these dictionaries most. But both dictionaries I mentioned above use latin tems more than English, and I find it's practically useless. The Firefly is a lot better in this sense. The Firefly could improve in the future versions by eliminating white spaces, reducing some repetitions. But being able to distinguish things of the same kind (e.g., dog breeds, spices, fruits) should be preserved.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource
Review: I really found this book very helpful in my practice. I have many Spanish speaking patients and this was very helpful in explaining a diagnosis and reviewing anatomy and how the body works. Also,it is an excellent resource for my own tenative and very beginning lanuage skills. It was well worth the price. Excellent pictures and detail!

Rating:
Summary: Not the best Visual Dictionary
Review: The book is huge, but don't let looks fool you. Partly this is due to oversized colored pictures, which you'd think would be good if they had 1) many labels or 2) large labels. Unfortunately, the print is small and the labelling is sparse. Often there's no label, just the name of the object. Like: "Hose." (In the garden section.) Uh, yeah? Unlike Dorling Kindersley's superior "Ultimate Visual Dictionary" this book doesn't try to list parts of objects quite as much as it's trying to list a *multitude* of objects. But it's not definitive in that respect either. For instance there's a section that shows the flag of all the major countries (I presumed) on the planet. But upon closer inspection I noticed that they did not include the national flag of Taiwan. Could it be an oversight? I doubt it - they probably censored it so they could get sales in China, whose government has hypnotized itself into thinking that Taiwan is a part of their country. (So much for sales in Taiwan.) Also, there's a strange amount of wasted space between the pictures on the page, which also contributes to the size, not to mention thick, heavy paper. On the good side, the pictures are very beautiful and plentiful. Although there were some visualized objects I wouldn't have otherwise known, I would recommend this book more for someone who is learning English. Otherwise, if you want a serious visual dictionary, go with Dorling Kindersley's "Ultimate Visual Dictionary".

Rating:
Summary: An unusual, exceptional approach
Review: This visual reference will appeal to entire families, as well as reference library holdings, revamping a popular visual dictionary originally produced by Macmillan over a decade ago. Thousands of new updated entries have been added for this edition, while a presentation by picture and an organization by subject makes it easy to look up such diverse topics as different sock lengths and carpentry tools. An unusual, exceptional approach to defining over 35,000 terms.