Review by Sean Holland

When I first got it (as a gift! Man, I've been lucky that way..) I didn't like it because it seemed to have way too much front matter, much of which was the dictionary praising itself. But little by little I grew to like the ingenious SK*P look-up system; once you get used to the system, you can get to any kanji in a matter of seconds. It isn't as comprehensive in the number of kanji as Nelson, but it is chock full of good information.

Review by Ben Bullock

Easy indexing, core meanings, compounds, synonyms, homophones, indication of usage, stroke order. various indexes Jouyou, frequency, synonym groups, on/kun readings)

More like a kanji study book than a dictionary, this is a very interesting book but a little too short on actual kanji words to be used to read Japanese. Spends many pages explaining the "skip" kanji classification system invented by Halpern.

Review by Allen Childs (MistaKefka)

Great! While I've heard Nelson's has more compounds and Kanji, the Halpern dictionary is very easy to use, while I've heard Nelson's is not. I've (attempted to) translate lots of things, and I can find almost every compound. I like the look-up system (very nice for simpler kanji, and only ... read more

Review by Mark Pearce

Things I Like:

1. Key Words. They way Halpern attempts to capture the meanings of a kanji in one or two key words is a great benefit to memorization.

2. Lots of Useful Information. Each character appears with information about its place in the Jouyou Kanji List, frequency of use, ... read more