Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Written by: Lynne Truss
Illustrated by: Bonnie Timmons
Penguin Young Readers Group
$21.00 Recommended for Grammar Sticklers

English teachers, journalists and young students who are learning the importance of the almighty comma will delight in this brand new picture book. Lynne Truss is the author of the #1 Best Selling book of the same name intended for adults. She has now collaborated with Bonnie Timmons to create this humourous look at “why, commas really do make a difference!” in an illustrated picture book.

On each page there is whimsical picture with a simple sentence below it. On the opposing page there is the same sentence with the comma placed in a different spot changing the illustration drastically. For instance, one page depicts a one-stop shop where people can “Eat here, and get gas.” The opposite page shows a family at a restaurant with one member belching because they were told to “Eat here and get gas.” Another page pronounces “The student, said the teacher, is crazy.” You can just imagine what the omission of the commas would do to this sentence.

Each of the thirteen sentences are explained at the end of the book for those readers who need to why things are the way they are.

Young children will enjoy the comical illustrations however it will be older children and adults, who are real sticklers for grammar (like myself), who will appreciate this book and keep it around as a conversation piece.