In Other Words: An Introductory Thesaurus

Lori A. Dunn is an ESL teacher and editor of the Toronto women’s
magazine Feminie.

This introductory thesaurus is truly a treasure—the big, bright cover,
clearly laid-out pages with bright borders to highlight the antonyms,
and a large enough selection of words to satisfy any fledgling writer.
As well as being useful in the regular school system, it will prove
extremely helpful to English as a Second Language students at an
intermediate level.

As a classroom tool, it uses sentences (to illustrate the words) that
will appeal to all students, whatever their age and/or level, with
real-life situations and no unnecessary condescension. The examples are
also unpretentiously impartial, portraying gender and race equally
without falling back on stale stereotypes.

One especially intriguing feature is the “title page” for each of
the letters, which offers a lean but tantalizing introduction to the
history of the letter itself, some rudimentary linguistic information,
and some cultural tidbits. This is the kind of introduction to language
that is sure to encourage students to go on and learn more on the
subject. The result is a physically practical and mentally enticing
reference tool for students of all ages.