McGraw-Hill Education: English Illustrated Dictionary – Book Review

McGraw-Hill Education: English Illustrated Dictionary

by LiveABC

What surprises can you get from a trip abroad? At least for me, they are books! This English dictionary is one of two books -- the other being an idiom book -- that I brought home from the unexpectedly known 47th National Book Fair & Bangkok International Book Fair 2019, during my first visit to Thailand (click here to read about some of my experiences there). Now that I've finished imbibing it, here are my thoughts on McGraw-Hill Education: English Illustrated Dictionary by LiveABC:

McGraw-Hill Education: English Illustrated Dictionary by LiveABC is a shortcut to enlarging your English vocabulary at a fast pace. This dictionary contains scores of illustrations with the matching words and phrases, mostly conveying their meanings clearly. This book is chopped up into 15 sections, covering a wide range of lexical items used in our daily life (around the house, people, foods, clothing, education, animals & plants, etc.). It is written and designed for beginner-level learners but I found some vocabulary quite uncommon/difficult, for example "trapezoid", "fjord", and "French horn", so I reckon it could be be fitting for pre-intermediate learners as well. McGraw-Hill Education: English Illustrated Dictionary is also equipped with an accompanying MP3 disk filled with audio files to help you with the native-speaker pronunciation of each entry -- nevertheless, I didn't make use of this feature and employed my favorite online dictionary, Macmillan Dictionary, instead. One thing of this book that could be improved is consistency, as a bit lack of it can be confusing for low-level learners. For instance, the entries "hiking" (a gerund) and "to fish" (a to-infinitive) in the Pastimes and Hobbies sub-section can be baffling in respect of how to use them in a sentence. Please notice that this dictionary presents the vocabulary in American English (if you are looking for one that is written in British English, I'd suggest Oxford Picture Dictionary (OPD). Keep in mind that OPD is written in a more detailed and more complex fashion; thus, it is more suitable for higher-level learners).

Have you read McGraw-Hill Education: English Illustrated Dictionary? What is your take on this book? Share what you think in the comment section below!