Awesome Vocabulary is a fun way to learn new words and roots. This book by Becky Burckmyer retails for $11.99, and it contains more than 200 pages of amusing stories, tips, and explanations.

If you hear "vocabulary builder" and immediately think of boring volumes the size of a New York City phone book with endless definitions, Awesome Vocabulary will be a refreshing way to grow your own word bank. There are eight word sets, each introduced in a farcical story. After each story, Ms. Burckmyer explains each word and provides examples. Tucked between each word set you'll find resources that, while not as fun as a silly story, are reader-friendly, "need to know" vocabulary tips. Among these are words that people easily confuse, strategies for learning new words, and words that have their origins in other languages.

Beyond the more than 30 words in each story section, Awesome Vocabulary provides tools your student can use to build his or her own vocabulary, discover the meaning of new words, and develop confidence in this sometimes challenging part of language arts.

What the book does not provide is a systematic review of words likely to appear on standardized tests like the SAT. However, the skills developed through reading an engaging book like Awesome Vocabulary are worth the effort. If you're using a more traditional approach to vocabulary building, a chapter of Awesome Vocabulary could make a great reward for work well done . . . or a welcome break from the daily study routine.

Product review by Tony Silva, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, May 2011