Description:
Visual foreign-language dictionaries are great tools for learning the names of the doohicky thingamajig part, the you-know, it-looks-like-this whatchamacallit. But not all visual dictionaries are created equal. You use them all, of course, for the words, to learn the language or the specific name for this and that, but the visual aspect of the visual dictionary should not be ignored. The pictures and pages in some dictionaries are so overwhelmingly busy, so noisily shouting with motorcycle parts and electrical hardware that the eye goes into overload shock. You get that glassy I'm-looking-but-I'm-not-seeing glaze, and the dictionary goes back on the shelf. Not so Macmillan's version. The color illustrations on each page are better than easy on the eye: they're engaging; they invite you. And each page holds a comfortable amount of information so the language center of your brain doesn't turn to mush. Pretty soon you're learning, just because you can't turn the page, that a lawn edger is a cuchilla para delimitar el césped and a hoe-fork is almocafre. And as it does for gardening tools, so it does for toilet parts and the sections of a diesel-electric locomotive, for items astronomical and geographical, items vegetable, animal, and mineral, for sports, music, health, weapons, and most anything else you can think of. It's nice enough for a student of Spanish or English to own a visual dictionary, but to have one that's done with such quality, style, and smarts is a real pleasure. --Stephanie Gold
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