Moira Rose Donohue

There are two reasons why I liked this book. First, the illustrations are appropriate to the mood of the story. The illustrations are bright and exciting, even on the pages where there is just text, the page is colored. In addition, the illustrations enhance the story by showing that the punctuation marks in the story are alive and have character. Second, the characters are well developed. Despite being punctuation marks, the characters are full of excitement and character. I particularly show more like how the question marks told knock knock jokes that involve them to ask questions and the explanation marks were excited and loud with a cheer! The big idea of the story is to not be afraid to show others your talents. Alfie was nervous about showing his magic tricks in the talent show. Turns out, everyone loved them and he was the hit of the show. show less

The fun, quirky character Alfie, is a real-life apostrophe who is nervous about performing at a school talent show. He feels unsure of himself and has butterflies about performing in front onstage in front of everyone. Alfie does many different magic tricks. He turns two words into one- a contraction and he also makes words possessive. The other punctuation marks (comma, hyphen, question mark, etcc) all have to perfrom their mark and explain their purpose. Alfie overcomes his fears and show more performs.
This is a good book to use for teachers trying to teach punctuation. Seems like a must have for classrooms. Great lesson as well about overcoming your fears.
Recommended grades: K-3 show less

What a great way to help kids with punctuation! The story is clever, each punctuation mark character is true to their personality, and kids get a chance to see them in action. It was nice to have some history to the origins of the name, too. I would like to have seen an appendix with a set of common words for kids to see, maybe with some hints to help kids remember.

To read our full review (complete with the kids' opinions!) go to The Reading Tub®.

The gorgeous photos and clear explanations you'd expect from National Geographic, geared for a younger crowd.