First Thousand Words in German

Usborne First Thousand Words

by Heather Amery, Stephen Cartwright

This book has large pictures for looking and talking, surrounded by small, labelled pictures of 1000 of the most familiar things, to build up and practice German vocabulary. This is backed up by an alphabetical word list with pronunciation guides.

Genres: German Literature, Childrens, Reference, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Language, Germany

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Heather Amery was born and brought up in Bath, Somerset. Heather has written over a hundred books for children, including alphabet books, science and history books, craft books, classical fairy tales, a series for beginner readers called Farmyard Tales, Usborne Bible Tales, and Greek Myths.

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 3 out of 5]

When All Else Fails, Read the Instructions (part 94)

Conversation with our house guest this morning:

- I approve of your choice of bathroom literature.

- Thank you.

- I love those Usborne books.

- They're fun, aren't they?

- So you also like looking for the ducks?

- What ducks?

- There's a duck hidden on every page.

- Is there?

- I've spent hours searching for them.

- Hm. Let me see. Where's the duck in this one?

- On the street, bottom right.

- And here? Oh, wait, there he is. He's peeking out from behind the toolbox. You know, I've had these for years, and I had no idea about the ducks.

- I guess you never read the notice at the bottom of page 1?

I'm afraid she was right. How many other essential things have I missed by impatiently proceeding to what I thought was the important part of the book?

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

We quite like this format of large illustrations of a scene such as a farm, a school or shop with the key words around the borders. The illustrations are interesting, packed full of detail, they do look slightly dated as this was originally printed in the 70's but they improve on pages the people are absent. There are phonetics for words in the back, these would have been handy next to the german words on the illustrations but not a bad starter book for the german language.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful resource. Lots of vocabulary, of course, but clearly organized around specific day-to-day scenes. These words are functional, useful, and clear. I liked that the book included not just nouns, but also verbs and adjectives. I like that the words were listed alphabetically in the back. I especially like that the pronunciation guides, which are by nature imprecise, were relegated to the back of the book where they belong, and not kept in the main section where they could be distracting and misleading. My only criticism is that some words were given only in plural form. I would have liked to see the singular as well. I think children might like this book, and I certainly think they could learn a lot from it. The pictures are interesting and relevant to children, and the pictures build on each other very well. That is, the later images in the book incorporate items featured in earlier vocabulary sections, giving a very natural way for children to review as they go. The ducks to look for in each picture make the reading experience into a hide-and-seek game. Charming.

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is "The First Thousand Words in German"

This is like a mini version of The Oxford-Duden Pictorial German-English Dictionary.

Only this one shows the big picture. It has an index of words and more words that are not pictured. It even comes with an Easy Pronunciation Guide. The pictures are cute and colorful.

Geared toward children, it makes a perfect learning companion for anyone tacking German for the first time. Showing verbs and adjectives, so you did not use the wrong article with words like traffic, which luckily is not in the book.

[Dane Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title: First Thousand Words in German
Author: Heather Amery
Illustrator: Stephen Cartwright
Grade Level Equivalent: N/A
Guided Reading Level: N/A
Writing Traits: Organization - Using sequence and transition words: The piece contains a variety of carefully selected sequence and transition words, which are placed wisely to guide the reader through the text by showing how ideas progress, relate, and/or diverge.

First Thousand Words in German is a simple, straightforward introduction to the German language for young children. After a brief explanation of masculine/feminine/neuter words and pronunciation, the book consists entirely of German words, each with an accompanying illustration, all grouped into a variety of themes; for example, one theme is "Sport," which teaches readers the German words for "windsurfing" and "Sumo wrestling," among others. While some themes are just a list of words and pictures, others depict a scene, such as a crowded beach, with the words and pictures listed around the edges.

This book is a good introduction to German vocabulary. All of the words Amery chose to include are nouns that non-German children will find familiar, and the illustrations, especially scenic images that tell a story, are helpful in drawing kids in.

[Jeff Tonks · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a thousand words in German.