galateus

From parsimonia's s_d post, this time slightly comprehensible:

Educational Consultant

Dr. Mario Fantini, Dean and Professor School of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts

Contributing Authors

Virginia G. Clammer, Reading Specialist and Teacher Thomas O. Frostman, Curriculum Specialist Cynthia Lewin, Ph.D., Reading Specialist and Author James A. Schulz, Professor of Humanities

Editorial Group

Kathleen Fischer; Susan Katz; Sally Paynter; Wendy Shore

Art Group

Darby Holmes, Art Director; Ruth Weiss, Production Coordinator; Kenneth Feduniewicz; Patricia Kearney; Barbara Remington; Wendy Walker; Nevin Washington

Special Thanks

DC Comics: Sol Harrison, President Joe Kubert, Cover Design Ben Oda, Lettering Publishers Phototype, Typesetting Post Graphics. Color Separation

Warner Educational Services A Warner Communications Company

Copyright ©1978 Warner Educational Services, Inc. All rights reserved. El Dragón copyright © Warner Educational Services, Inc. 1978. All other characters copyright © DC Comics Inc., 1978. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, record- ing, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published simultaneously in Canada, by Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Limited. Printed in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 78-55453 ISBN: 0-03-043756-3 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

A LEARNING DICTIONARY FOR YOUR CHILD

THE SUPER DICTIONARY is a serious book about words written in a fascinating manner just for children. It combines trusted learning theory and America's best known and loved comic characters. The irresistible quality of the colorful art, the story form of the definitions and the special challenge to the young learner make this dictionary a book of many uses over a wide age range. Pre-schoolers, beginning readers and advancing readers alike find THE SUPER DICTIONARY a joy to use. It is clearly organized and is a convenient and entertaining resource book unlike any other. Parents reading the book to children and having it read back to them know the pleasure of participating in a positive learning experience. * A unique approach, now widely used in schools, combines trusted educational methods and America's best known and loved comic characters. *Carefully researched and developed by a team of leaders in primary education, teachers and language specialists. * 416 full-color SUPER DICTIONARY pages, dynamically designed to keep children involved from A to Z. * Alearning tool for developing a meaningful vocabulary, increas- ing comprehension skills and providing exciting reading practice. * Words defined clearly and concisely in superhero stories for maximum understanding and appeal to children. * Strong, motivational superhero content gives each young reader a positive dictionary experience.

* Carefully researched

THE SUPER DICTIONARY`s planning and research is based primarily on the use of the Harris-Jacobson Basic Elementary Reading Vocabularies, a word list that identifies those words most commonly found in school readers and textbooks for each grade level, and the use of the Dale-O`Rourke Living Word Vo- cabulary, a vocabulary inventory that identifies those meanings of words that are most familiar to children at each grade level. Great care was given in presenting a list of words and their most familiar meanings so that this dictionary would be appropriate for children in the early grades. In order to guarantee maximum use of this book. the words from the first, second and third grade lists plus selected words from grades four and five were included for definition. Children using THE SUPER DICTIONARY will be expanding a meaningful vocabulary and can be well prepared to manage successfully the reading they will be required to do in school.

* Words defined clearly

This dictionary's consistency of design. format. and style of definitions makes it easy for children to use. Words to be defined are always found at the left side of the page and are clearly Identified so that children can readily locate them. Each com- plete definition is contained in a single box in order tn eliminate confusion — children automatically know which picture goes with the definition. Sentence structure and vocabulary selection are consistently appropriate for maximum readability. THE SUPER DICTIONARY makes a unique contribution to chil- dren’s dictionaries by defining each word In a story context that children quickly understand. Throughout this book each word to be defined ls first used in a story sentence: then the definition is substituted for the word in the following sentence. For those words with more than one meaning or with more than one part of speech defined, the word is used again in a story sentence and then followed by a sentence with its definition. As an aid to children's understanding of word usage and spelling skill, the plural is also included when a noun ls defined (baby, babies), the past tense when a verb is defined (climb, climbed), and the familiar comparative and superlative forms when an adjective or adverb is defined (dark, darker, darkest).

A major component of this dictionary's approach is its use of comic characters in art and definitions in dialogue to create an extra dimension of interest and serve to make each meaning easier to understand and more likely to be remembered.

* Strong motivational content

Generations of young people have enjoyed the superheroes in comic-book readers and recently through television, toys, and clothes. Teachers have recognized the need to motivate children to learn by presenting them with such high-interest materials. At present schools are using superhero content in reading pro— grams in order to hold children's interest and are meeting con- siderable success. Today it's Superman, Wonder Woman, Bat— man and Robin who form a content base for reading and reading skills practice. Full use of the high-interest comic characters in action has been made throughout THE SUPER DICTIONARY to make sure that the young reader will be motivated to use the dictionary again and again. These characters work very effectively to stimulate a child's curiosity, intelligence and imagination — a necessary condition under which the most and best learning takes place. Care has been taken to present the superheroes and villains in a variety of situations so that the child can share in the imagi- native world of the comic characters and the characters can "share" in the more human, everyday world of the child. The famous superheroes in the dictionary read and sleep and keep clean tool * A learning tool This dictionary has been developed using accepted learning theory, carefully structured research and an exciting content base in order to make it a perfect match for children's reading ability. level of understanding and interests. Children using the book can develop a meaningful vocabulary, increase com- prehension, gain a proficiency in dictionary skills and have many delightful hours of reading practice. Parents can help in the learning process by becoming involved in the dictionary too by reading to children, by asking children to look up words

and read to them and by having children talk about what they have read.