Grammar’s Makeover
By Lisa Von Drasek

For Lisa Von Drasek's article on Grammar Picture-Book Recommendations click here

For Lisa Von Drasek's latest audiobook recommendations click here

The importance of comma placement is humorously illustrated in Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss.

March is grammar month. I'm just kidding. Just the word "grammar" conjures up tedious worksheets, term papers marked up in red and middle school students sighing, "Why is this important?" A neighbor stopped by as I was writing this; when I told her I was writing about grammar, Elizabeth said, "Any person who can make grammar interesting is a gift for humanity." This latest crop of titles on this subject has been a joy to peruse and are truly, as Elizabeth exclaimed, "A gift."

Eats, shoots and reads
The most well-known modern grammar book is Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss (Gotham, 2004, ISBN: 1-592-40087-6). Truss's essays on annoying and humorous punctuation errors are witty and fun to read. This book has also brought grammar to the forefront of public discourse.

Truss has spun off a children's version, Eats, Shoots and Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! (Putnam, 2006, ISBN: 0-399-24491-3). She explains that punctuation marks are "the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, or stop." In the picture-book format, the same sentence with different punctuation is illustrated. "Slow, children crossing" shows a crossing guard guiding children leaving school. The opposite page displays "Slow children crossing" – children dallying on a bridge holding up traffic.

Sentence-forming series
The two following grammar picture-book series are richly illustrated and provide repetitious examples to hammer home concepts. The real beauty of these collections is that they give concrete images to the abstract ideas of sentence structure.

In the Millbrook Press series "Words Are CATegorical™," Brian P. Cleary's amusing text is paired with equally entertaining drawings populated by colorful cats demonstrating the concepts. Each volume defines its title term opposite the title page, then the fun begins.

One book in this series is A Mink, A Fink, A Skating Rink: What Is a Noun? (Carolrhoda Books, 1999, ISBN: 1-575-05403-5). "Hill is a noun. Mill is a noun. Even Uncle Phil is a noun. Gown is a noun. Crown is a noun. In fact our whole hometown is a noun." The noun words are in colors to make them easy to spot.

Teachers can use these texts as jumping-off points for children to create their own rhyming noun lists and sentences. Proper nouns can be off-putting until we hear that "Nouns can sometimes be quite proper, like Brooklyn Bridge or Edward Hopper. London, Levis, Pekinese – proper nouns name all of these."

Picture Window Books also presents grammar accompanied by colorfully bold, literal paintings and straightforward definitions and examples. Each title in its "Word Fun" series personifies the concept. In If You Were a Noun by Michael Dahl (2007, ISBN: 1-404-81980-0), the author supposes, "If you were a noun...you would be a star, a cloud, an astronaut or the moon." "If you were a noun you would be easy to spot. You would be a person, a place or a thing."

The titles in this series are meant to be classroom read-alouds, with easy-to-identify examples in a large, clear typeface. Each also includes a curriculum connection activity.

Feast of words
Antonyms, Synonyms & Homonyms by Kim and Robert Rayevsky (Holiday House, 2006, ISBN: 0--823-41889-8). This is a wacky, zany, madcap, screwy book of words that demonstrates the joy of language. This husband and wife team, rather than explaining terms, simply uses them in a variety of situations illustrated in multimedia, pen and ink, watercolor, pencil and collage. A dog and a cat face off and the synonyms are placed on the page in a column: argue, fight, squabble, complain, dispute, bicker. The pages are crowded with pictures and words, piled one upon the other. I found the pages of words, words and more words engaging and stimulating.

For Lisa Von Drasek's article on Grammar Picture-Book Recommendations click here

For Lisa Von Drasek's latest audiobook recommendations click here

Lisa Von Drasek is Children's Librarian at the Bank Street College of Education in New York, NY.

March, 2007, Vol.37, No.6