This informational text is a perfect mentor text for teaching students nouns. Appropriate for second grade, readers will learn about proper and abstract nouns through fun rhyming. ( )

Decent explanation of nouns. I may pick up more in the series. ( )

A Lime, a Mime, a Pool of Slime: More About Nouns is one in a series of books about parts of speech. The book, while following the typical format of a non-text book about grammar, is as effective as the teacher that uses it. The book is a brightly colored, rhyming romp through nouns. The first page after the title page contains a brief, traditional definition of a noun. From that point on the book is a collection of sentences and illustrations that work together not to tell a story, but to highlight that revered staple of speech, the noun.
The book moves from the general to the more specific. In the beginning, nouns are simply listed. The nouns are brightly colored, allowing them to stand out from the rest of the print. Eventually, the book moves into abstract and proper nouns. Explanations and examples of the specific noun types are given.
While the prose is not particullary interesting, there are some features that can be ellaborated upon to make the book more effective. There is some effort to include unique, informal and vivid nouns such as bling (as in ostentageous jewerly), shack, slime, hand-me-downs, and chimp. There are illustrated examples of all the nouns, thus making the book an informal picture dictionary. Finally, there are many geographical references made to such interesting places as Norway, Peru, Boston, Timbuktu, and Paris, France. A discussion could be has as to how elements of these places, proper nouns, are represented in the illustrations. ( )

This is the second book in the CATegorical series on nouns. The pictures are fun and the words are funny. Kids love to learn about nouns when reading these books. ( )