Product Description

Commas, periods, excalmation points, question marks, colons, apostrophes, quotation marks: take your places. 10:00 A.M. Time to study us. Learn how punctuation marks work together to make reading and writing flow smoothly.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10982 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 28 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 1-3-"Day after day, the punctuation marks showed up in Mr. Wright's classroom. Day after day, they did their jobs. They put up with being erased and replaced and corrected and ignored and moved around." Miffed when the teacher quips, "Let's give punctuation a vacation," the various marks decide to take a trip and rush out the door. The class misses them almost immediately, as nothing the students read or write makes any sense without them. The vacationers send postcards back to the class requiring the children to dissect the clever wordplay and figure out which marks sent which cards. The youngsters send their own card apologizing, and all ends happily as the punctuation marks return and order is restored. Pulver's clever story moves along at a nice clip and makes its point without belaboring the matter. Reed's acrylics-on-canvas illustrations are rich in color and texture, and add to the amusement of the story. A lighthearted choice to be read independently or used to introduce a language-arts lesson.
Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 1-3. On the hottest day Mr. Wright's class has ever seen, the teacher gives punctuation a vacation! Insulted, the punctuation marks take off, and a few days later postcards arrive from Take-a-Break Lake. The kids want to write back, but they can't without any punctuation. Borrowing the unruly marks from the class next door, they write a letter begging the marks to return, a letter filled with usage errors that effectively makes their case. Childlike acrylic paintings on canvas "punctuate" the zaniness by turning the marks into characters whose banter exemplifies the marks' use. The messages on the postcards further typify usage (e.g., "Do you miss us? How much? Why couldn't we take a vacation sooner? Guess who?"). A straightforward list of punctuation rules rounds out this inventive and entertaining device for getting kids to understand usage, which proves that nothing makes sense without punctuation. Right? Right! Julie Cummins
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Pulver's clever story moves along at a nice clip and makes its point without belaboring the matter...A lighthearted choice to be read independently or used to introduce a language-arts lesson." (School Library Journal )

Customer Reviews

Cute book!!!
My class of 3rd graders thoroughly enjoyed this book. It fit right in with the teaching of the writing trait "conventions."

A Story With All The Right Marks!
This was a great book. It really shows how important punctuation is when writing. Punctuation takes a break from its work in a classroom and soon the students find that their world is a little more crazy without the marks to make it mind. The story line was well thought out and the list at the end of the book is a great teaching tool. The illustrations are wonderful. I also enjoyed the personality traits given to the individual marks of punctuation.

Clever but Punctuated with Racial Stereotypes
I must come to the aid of poor Sheila who has been unfairly attacked for having an unpopular opinion (and for her spelling--now, that's just rude!).

I bought this book based on the many positive reviews and actually assumed that the perceived racism was probably blown out of proportion. But, as a middle school teacher, when I got to the page where Mr. Rongo appeared, I was a bit taken aback. Yes, Mr. Rongo is African-American while Mr. Wright is Caucasion, and yes he is called Mr. RONGo. That is probably bad enough, but his outfit is also somewhat clownish, and the poor guy really seems to have no control over his class (or at least over his punctuation). I'm white, and it bothered me. I actually checked the copyright date and thought there was some mistake!

No, the color of the two teachers' skin is not the focus of this book. But, if I read it to my sixth-graders, I would feel compelled to discuss this issue with them. I certainly don't want to propagate a stereotype, especially in a school system that is already quite "diversity challenged."

That said, I enjoyed the book, especially the postcards from the punctuation marks. It could be fun to have the kids figure out which ones sent which postcards. Of course, we would have to take time out to give colons some respect. Timekeepers? Honestly! If I were a colon, I'd be insulted.