The Big Book of Words for Curious Kids

More than 800 words fill this vocabulary book, its spreads boasting tidy rows of small, captioned illustrations. Entries are grouped by such themes as ``The kitchen''; ``Eating''; ``Pets and animals''; and ``Grown-up things,'' an odd hodgepodge that includes a VCR, a food processor, thumbtacks, change purse, pills, daddy's shoes, etc. On each recto page, a vignette depicts two tykes--joined by a gaggle in the spread for ``Preschool''--in the designated setting or activity. Even though the images are attractively rendered in bright colors, the unrelieved linear design of rows and columns produces an overall effect of straightforward serviceability. Also, a few entries seem a bit advanced or too specific to the book's European origins (in the bathroom, suppositories and a bidet). Ages 2-5. (Aug.)