Should a book contain words that are challenging to readers?

[Khaya]

I agree that a book should contain challenging words, but not so much that it distracts from the story. You don't want your reader to keep having to look up things in the dictionary.

[Riki]

The vocabulary that stuck with me throughout my life are the words I've learned from novels. When you read something unfamiliar the brain naturally uses the context to decipher the new word. So by placing harder words in children's books, you expand their mind and diction. The trickiest part is understanding what words are too high level for certain age groups. You don't want to consistently throw in college level vocabulary into a book meant for third graders, but you also don't want to present only third-grade vocab. A good children's book should challenge a kid, but never overwhelm them.

[k2rugman]

I do think that books should contain words that may be challenging to readers, to an extent. I think it is beneficial for readers to expand their vocabulary. However, I don't like it when it sounds like authors are sitting by a thesaurus. Trying to utilize big or important sounding words for the sake of sounding intellectual just makes it look sloppy.

[TrishaAnn92]

Definitely! It's a great way to engage a reader in expanding their vocabulary.

[nikkon]

A book should help expand the childs learning experience by introducing new concepts, ideas, and insight so that way they can fully or partially understand the world that goes on around them. When I was younger, it baffled my teachers how much "intelligent words" I used at such a young age and even knew what they mean as well. It's also good to challenge ones intelligence as well, making them want to see what they already knew or did not. So yes, books should have challenging words in their text.

[Ebe Read]

Words are the way we talk to each other, without them we have no understanding. We call them language but they are so much more. We all know this! So what is new? However we only have the amount of knowledge reflected by words we know and our understanding of what we are saying when we use them, for that is how we understand each other. If our stories can assist us in increasing our knowledge and true understanding of what we and the other person is saying, then we might eventually have enough understanding to build the world we are all striving for.

[Sarah G]

I think it's a really good idea to have more complicated words in kids books. It's a brilliant way for them to expand their vocabulary. but it also shows them how the word is used and in what context. That makes it a lot easier to remember.

[Azrevread]

I think that books should contain words that are challenging for children to read, especially when there is
a trusted and responsible adult like a teacher or tutor to help them. Also I think that children should
be encouraged to learn new words, as long as the learning is at a pace that is comfortable for them.

[EmperorOfBooks]

I think that books should have words that are challenging to readers. One of the best aspects of reading, is to find new words to implement into your everyday vocabulary. I just find learning new words to be a fun activity.

[Cjgarland89]

I think the author is spot on in including words that can be difficult for children to read. If children can't read challenging books, how can they hope to improve their vocabulary? As an adult it's important to me to be able to read challenging books and learn new things each time I read a book. That's the biggest reason I enjoy reading so much.

[ashpash]

Most definitely books should have challenging words! I hate that in this age everything is so dumbed down. The English language is so vast and there are such interesting words that no one ever uses. Also there are so many words that describe specific things but people still use simple words that might not as accurately describe something or mean exactly what they're trying to say, which is something that bothers me.

[AA1495]

I have never actually looked up a word I didn't understand. You can understand sentences without understanding every word, so I simply skip those words.

[Katherine Smith]

I think that children's books should contain some challenging words, but not too many or the child will just become confused. I think that challenging words can help build up the child's vocabulary as they are learning to read.

[sarahmk]

In hsimone's review of Farmer Beau's Farm, she mentions that the book contain words that may be unfamiliar to children such as, "tinkering," "burrowed" and other words. By doing this, the author helps to expand a child's vocabulary.

What's your opinion? Should a book contain words that are challenging to young readers or should it be kept simple? Why?

What about books for adults? Do you like reading books that contain challenging words? Why?

Yes! I think it's great, as long as the whole book isn't so full of difficult words that it's hard to read. Reading is a great way to learn new vocabulary and allows us to discuss those new words with our kids, and introduce even more new words in that discussion.

I also like challenging words in my books, as I can also expand on my own vocabulary. That's one of my favorite things about reading e-books as well - I can easily highlight the word to look it up in a dictionary on my device.

[Fictions Mistress]

To an extent. I remember reading as a young child and learning most of my vocabulary not from school, but from the books that I read and films that I watched. As many on this forum have stated, it's one of the best ways to learn new words. That being said, I can't stand when an author uses nothing but uncommon vocabulary. Some do it just to sound intelligent, and it gives a bad atmosphere. Using challenging words is excellent, but there is a line. Extremism is always bad.