The Girl's Like Spaghetti: Why, You Can't Manage without Apostrophes!

Having read and greatly valued Truss' first venture into punctuation books, this was a disappointment.It may have been because the advertising was misleading or I didn't read it closely enough, but I didn't realise this was, in fact, a kid's book, not for adults.The title is clear enough; it's about the use of apostrophes, (and indeed, nothing else).As an introduction to punctuation for children NOT BEFORE TIME, it's great.The examples of apostrophe misuse (and the vaguely amusing illustrations of them) are good and work well for anyone, but particularly for the 12-15 year old group.I'd really like to see another Eats, Roots, and Leaves with all the fascinating real world examples of the misuse of punctuation. I hoped this was it; but it wasn't.If you are keen on good written English (like me) you may want to get a copy for you school aged children.

Too many repeats from the other books. I purchased three different titles thinking that they would provide lots of examples to use with my students, but among the 3 books, most of it overlaps at least once, sometimes even more than that.

Buy all of Lynne Truss's books. Seriously! Okay, I'm a grammar nerd, I admit it. I got Eats, Shoots and Leaves and just loved it. Then, I learned about her "picture books." These visually show the difference in meaning of a hyphen or period or other punctuation. You can look at pictures side by side--same sentence, different punctuation. Perfect for all classrooms, great gift for coworkers, even college students. Great for grammar lesson plans (have kids make and draw their own). Just remember that there are a few differences between English grammar rules in America and the UK.

This book is great. Nicely illustrated, and the pictures are entertaining too. The sentences themselves are funny. My students linger over the pages of the book, pondering both the meaning and the artwork. Great, great book for elementary grammar. Its good for middle school too, because it is that engaging. I bet even a high schooler who struggles with apostrophes would benefit.

Perfect book for a parental refresher and a child educator. Makes it much easier to explain (‘) in a fun way!

As a sixth grade English teacher, it was frustrating seeing students place an apostrophe any time a word was plural and ended in the letter "s". It was like the apostrophe became a machine gun and the students sprayed the "s" all over the place. This book will clearly help students differentiate when to use the apostrophe correctly. Bravo to the writers!

An interesting way of demonstrating topic. Great read aloud. I will use in my class.

This book is fantastic. My 6 1/2 year old loves it, as well as Truss's previous children's version of Eats, Shoots and Leaves. In my role as an English professor, I will use this book to help some college students who are apostrophe-challenged. The pictures do a terrific job of illustrating concepts that words alone seem not to convey to some people.

Quite a relief to find a funny, absorbing and light-hearted book about this tricky part of English puctuation - and one which allows children ample scope to explore it for themselves and to discover how meanings change when the apostrophe is incorrectly used.

Solved my apostrophe woes! I now love using the things.

Super book. Lots of fun. Very accessible for a nine year old.Rather pricey, though, for a 30-or-so page book.

Makes its point nicely.

Fun and useful to use with children!