My First Thesaurus (Kingfisher First Reference) - Softcover

George Beal has written several books about language for children including The Illustrated Children's Thesaurus, as well as the Kingfisher Book of Words and the Kingfisher First Thesaurus.

There are double-page spreads on such topics as animals, community helpers, sport, and transportation, often out of alphabetical sequence, apparently for format reasons. Ten pages have quizzes or activities of some kind; the answers are on the last page. Two pages list homophones. Cartoonish line drawings appear on most pages, their presumable function being humor and variety. The book is printed in two colors, green and black.

The basic words are appropriately simple for a first thesaurus (e.g., beautiful, leave, sad, work), but the synonyms are often more advanced (e.g., those for noise include racket and din, with hush and silence as opposites). While some sentences are helpful with meaning ("There was such a din, I couldn't hear myself talk"), others are not ("Why are you so gloomy?"). Some words and sentences seem conceptually far beyond what would be expected in a first thesaurus, ("La Scala in Milan is one of the world's great opera houses").

Only libraries intent on building a collection of children's wordbooks need purchase. This is ineffective as a reference book and too unattractive to invite much browsing.