Children's Writer's Word Book

No matter if you are writing for a newspaper or children, this is a very useful resource. Knowing whether the words you are choosing are speaking to or down to your audience can always be helpful. It has even assisted me as a type of thesaurus; while looking up a word to find its age appropriateness, I discovered a far better one to use in that particular instance.

I use this book to write stories for my young children and it is very helpful. My only constructive criticism is that there are two levels for most words -- the level at which the child understands the word and the level at which he/she can read the word. For very young children, those two levels may be separated by two or more years. Therefore, it would be useful if both levels (comprehension and reading) were included.

A wonderful tool for the childrens book author. Jam packed with word alternatives and information.

For those who haven't had the opportunity to browse Alijandra Mogilner's book Children's Writer's Word Book, I hope you will take time to do so. It is an exellent reference tool. I am taking a series of online writing courses through a local college, and this title is on the recommend reading list for the Writing for Children class. I was so favorably impressed with the copy I checked out at our local library, I ordered my own copy that same weekend. I can tell it will become a dog-eared favorite.

It is a dictionary/thesaurus extraordinaire. Take the word "eat," for example. The book lets you know that a first-grade student would understand the synonyms bite, chew, dine and feast but that I'd need to wait until my readers hit fourth grade to use words such as consume, crunch and nibble.

Another aspect of the book I found to be very useful is the introduction that appears at the beginning of each graded word list. These pages summarize what social changes readers are undergoing at each grade level as well as what vocabulary and other subjects they're learning in the classroom. It also covers what publishers are looking for as well as a short writing sample to clearly illustrate pertinent points.

This is one of the best reference guides I ever have used.

This book is a must have for anyone writing for children. The way the book has grouped the words by age group is a huge plus.