Thorndike composed three different word books to assist teachers with word and reading instruction. After publication of the first book in the series, "The Teacher's Word Book" (1921), two other books were written and published, each approximately a decade apart from its predecessor. The second book in the series, its full title being "A Teacher's Word Book of the Twenty Thousand Words Found Most Frequently and Widely in General Reading for Children and Young People", was published in 1932, and the third and final book, "The Teacher's Word Book of 30,000 Words", was published in 1944.