This latest book review has me in a quandry: do I keep this terrific little book at home, or store it at my office to use with my students? Perhaps the question should actually be: is there an e-book version so I can just have one available everywhere?
I am not a fan of grammar.
Yep. You heard it. This writer, poet, editor, and teacher is not fond of grammar. Why? I’ve written about it before so I won’t be digressing into a detailed discussion of that, but I love when someone can take the topic of grammar and do so non-snottily (a shout-out to a John Green video as well with that statement).
This book came out of coursework for creative writers at UNC-Chapel Hill, and some of the topics and exercises inside it are a bit advanced (even for me: the grammar weary). There are many, however, that I think would just be great fun for writers at a variety of levels. I picked out exercises I could try when I felt “blocked” with my own writing as well as ones to use in class as refereshers like how about turning poem or lyrics into the passive voice? Or want to play with the phonics/sounds of words? Word games with infinitives? I could go on.
If you go to the website for the book you can link to videos and other information. This is one I would highly recommend although not necessarily as one to read straight through. It is more of a resource, and one I’m glad to have in my stack 
I love it when you find something good and share it! Good find, Jessie!
wish I could remember where I first heard of it!
Well. Some friends of mine have started calling me “The Grammar Nazi”, ha ha, so this sounds like the book for me. I really don’t know all that much about grammar, but it does bug me when people make the mistakes of a first grader.( I’m really not a grammar nazi, although I did love diagramming sentences in school. Weird, I know.)
The book sounds like fun, and it’s going into my cart asap.
I LOVED diagramming sentences actually even though I still struggled, starting in high school, with “immature syntax and diction.”
there’s a time for grammar critique and there is a time to create
Absolutely. I love that free verse allows for that creativity.
(Wow, immature syntax and diction? Harsh. LOL)
Diagramming rocks.
yeah my AP English teacher wrote that on several of my in class essays but never gave me any advice on how to improve!
That’s ridiculous. Teachers are there to teach & if they just comment without teaching you a better a way, then there comment becomes pointless. That’s what makes you such a great teacher, Jessie, I know (from what I know about you) that you would suggest a better or different way, rather than just making a comment and leaving it at that. Pretty sure you are a teacher that actually teaches!
*their (that’s ironic)
thanks, val
I have had a student whom I felt was in my old situation. I suggested she read more in areas she wouldn’t normally read in like “time” magazine perhaps. and will reading something very different study the sentence structures.
That’s a great suggestion. The world is getting more dog eat dog and students need to gain confidence and receive guidance wherever they can. Seems like you do such a great job with that.
that’s part of why I like to teach a variety of contemporary work along with the canonical works. think of young poets who spend so much time trying to be the romantics lol