TOS Review: New Monic Books: Vocabulary Cartoons

Have you found vocabulary curriculum to be dry?  Do your children balk at memorizing definitions to words that bore them?  Vocabulary Cartoons from New Monic Books will change that.  Using black and white funny drawings combined with a funny sentence and a helpful word or phrase that rhymes with the vocabulary word, your child is sure to remember the definitions of this week's vocabulary words. 

From the website:

Vocabulary Cartoons works on the principle of mnemonics. A mnemonic is a device that helps you remember something by associating what you are trying to remember with something you already know. 

Following the mnemonic principle of association, Vocabulary Cartoons link together an auditory (rhyming) word association and a visual association in the form of a humorous cartoon. These powerful mnemonics help students retain the meanings of words longer and with less effort than trying to memorize definitions straight out of a dictionary.

(I won't tell you how long it was before I realized the company name New Monic Books was from the word mnemonics.)

Here is an example from the Vocabulary Cartoons: SAT Word Power book.  The format of the page is the same as the elementary Vocabulary Cartoons.

Click here for a few more samples of vocabulary cartoons.


After every 10 vocabulary words there is a worksheet the kids can do to review the words.  The worksheet is pretty basic.  The first part of the worksheet is matching the vocabulary words with their definitions.  The second part is writing in the correct vocabulary word for each sentence.  You can have your child write directly in the book, or just have them write the answers on a separate sheet of paper.  Then you can use the book over again more easily.

Since this book uses rhyming words and pictures to assist the child in learning the vocabulary word, it would work well for both auditory and visual learners.

Precise Prince had the whole book read the first day I showed it to the kids.  He asked me to randomly quiz him on the words in the book. He did a pretty good job with the definitions of many of the words and when he wasn't sure of a word, I would tell him what the word sounds like and that helped.  He said he would see the picture in his mind when I said the "sounds like" word and that helped him remember what the word meant.  (Yes, he got a few wrong, but remember, he had only read through the 210 vocabulary words once and he wasn't necessarily trying to memorize the whole book at the time.)

(This is Precises Prince reading the Vocabulary Cartoons book--he's sitting on the stairs.  I can't tell you how many times I have had to ask him to move because he was reading on the stairs-I'm not sure I can count that high.)

Precise Prince also asked me if there were any more Vocabulary Cartoons books I could get for him.  Unfortunately, at this time there is only one elementary book available.  Since my friend, Denise reviewed a New Monic book for older students, I asked her if she thought it would be appropriate for Precise Prince.  She assured me that although some of the words may be difficult, I wouldn't object to Precise Prince learning any of the words.  So now, I have a new product on my list to order: Vocabulary Cartoons: SAT Word Power.  (Actually, there are two SAT Word Power books so we'll get one now and one later.)

Here is one of Precise Prince's favorite words from the book:

ENDORSE (en DORSE) v. to give approval or support.  Sounds like: HORSE  "A Kentucky Derby winning HORSE ENDORSES his ointment."  There is a picture of a horse saying "Friends! You'll love Kentucky Derby ointment for what ails you!"  The horse is standing at a table with a banner that says New Miracle Ointment and people are standing around listening to him.

Creative Princess had fun looking through the book as well.  She found the pictures funny and of course, she loved that so many of the pictures use animals in them. 


I found that when we went to look up the definition of a word this week, I grabbed the Vocabulary Cartoon book first to see if the word was there.  The end of the book contains an index with all the words alphabetized so it was easy to see if the word was in the book.  (I can't remember what word we were looking up but it wasn't one of the 210 words in the Vocabulary Cartoons book.)

I would love to see a kids dictionary in this format.  The pictures and sentences really do help cement the meaning of a word. 

Go here and order your Vocabulary Cartoons for only $12.95.  See what other TOS crewmates had to say about this product here.

(I received one copy of Vocabulary Cartoons for free in exchange for my honest opinion.  No other compensation was received.)