Woe is I Jr.: The Younger Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English - Softcover

Patricia T. O'Conner, a former editor at the New York Times Book Review, has written for many magazines and newspapers. She is the author of two other books on language and writing, Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know About Writing and You Send Me: Getting It Right When You Write Online.

Grade 4–8—O'Conner has produced a grammar guide for children using the witty, lighthearted style that made Woe Is I (Putnam, 1996) so popular. She covers pronouns, plurals, possessives, verb usage, subject-verb agreement, capitalization, and punctuation with jargon-free explanations and entertaining examples (Shrek, Count Olaf, Garfield, and Harry Potter all put in appearances). Additional chapters on commonly confused and misspelled words, clichés, and instant messaging and e-mails make this a well-rounded and useful guide to grammar in the 21st century. The scattered comic-strip-style illustrations neither add to nor detract from its value. Handbooks that are as instructive as they are entertaining are few and far between, making this a first purchase for most libraries.—Amanda Raklovits, Champaign Public Library, IL
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