Thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Walter Foster, Walter Foster Jr for a free digital copy.

I loved this book about grammar and how it breaks down the parts of speech, grammar, and literary devices for kids. The illustrations are many and varied and help really sell the definitions.

Is this the coolest grammer book i've read? YES

This is such a fun way to introduce to some key concepts of grammer to young learners. Each page features a different part of speach with the definition, a longer explanation, and a fun sentence using that part of speech. There is super fun illustrations to show the fun sentence that kids will love.

I love that this book breaks things down in a way that will make sense to kids. It uses bright colors and great illustrations that will make kids forget they are learning.

Will be buying for my teacher friends to have in their classrooms!

This is a fun and engaging grammar book. My second grader enjoyed the pictures and learned from the descriptions. He used the pictures to find other examples of the part of speech taught on that page. I believe learning sticks better when it's fun and this book is fun.

This bright and attractive book not only teaches children grammar, but also important literary devices. The one-page explanations and illustrative examples are concise yet conversational in tone, well chosen, and memorable. The accompanying colourful and humorous pictures on the opposite pages enrich the learning experience, making grammar seem interesting and alive rather than dry and boring. The literary devices introduced in the second half of the book include metaphors, hyperbole, anthropomorphism, etc., again with well-chosen illustrative examples and pictures. I would highly recommend this book for young students starting their journey to reading "real" literature and poetry.

This is such a fantastic picture book to explain English grammar. Grammar is so difficult to teach and get young people engaged in the content. This book is filled with bright colors and clear and simple explanations of various parts of speech. It covers 25 topics: parts of speech, grammar, and literary devices. I love this book because, as a teacher, before a lesson on a specific topic you could read just that page as a read aloud to the class. For example, there is a page on Similes. It defines the word, explains how it is used, and gives an example sentence. It also includes a beautiful illustration that correlates to the topic. This would be a great starting point for a lesson. This book would be great for teachers to use throughout the year while covering different topics.
As an ESL teacher this book would also be unbelievably useful when working with second language learners. Many older students including adults understand grammar in their native language and having this clear and simple picture book would be a wonderful learning tool.
There are so many uses for this book in an educational setting, but it would also be helpful for parents in a home library. Thanks so much to #Netgalley and #walterfosterpublishing #thequartogroup for giving me a sneak peek at this ebook!

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I enjoyed this book, I only wished I had read it while doing my English Lit degree. My grandchildren found it fascinating. Recommended.

This is a beginner’s guide to the eight parts of speech, grammatical usage, and literary devices in the English language. The content seems mostly well-planned, but there were some areas I wasn’t much convinced about.
Each page contains a term, its explanation, and an example of its usage, with a related illustration on the right hand side of the page. The explanations are somewhat simple and easy to understand, even when they include difficult subtopics such as transitive verbs. At times though, there are some difficult words in the explanatory segment such as “vague” and “sophisticated”. Some of the terms, however, aren't explained too well and will leave its readers even more confused than before.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the Royal Order of Adjectives included in this book. So many children’s grammar books skip out on this topic. I wish the book had also included some mnemonic to make it easier to remember.

I didn’t understand why Punctuation and Commas needed to be two separate sections. Or why commas were the only punctuation mark deserving of a separate section.

What is hardly ever found in a children’s grammar book is a section on literary devices such as hyperbole, juxtaposition, anthropomorphism, and so on. This part was very interesting but also the most complicated section of the book so younger readers might find it difficult to grasp. Some of the content isn’t clarified well. For instance, the distinction between idioms and clichés doesn’t come out clearly as the examples sound quite similar. I also didn’t agree with the examples of irony – none of them denoted the exact meaning but were just examples of unexpected ideas. For instance, ‘A librarian who races monster trucks’ might be an odd one out but there’s no irony to this idea.

I loved the “note to know-it-alls” at the end. I guess by pointing out so many areas of improvement in a grammar book, I have proven myself to be a grammar snob and thus, ended up breaking the rule that tells us not to be too snobby and resist the urge to correct the mistakes crossing our path. That’s ironic!

3.25 stars. The range of topics is good but I am not too sure of its ease of understanding or about the accuracy some part of its content. The book is aimed at the 8-11 age group.


My thanks to Quarto Publishing Group and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Know-Nonsense Guide to Grammar”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

This is a clear, highly readable explanation of parts of speech, some basic elements of grammar, and a sampling of literary devices. It's funny and the tone is very accessible. It even cleared up a couple of rules/concepts that I'd always been a little iffy on. The art is lively, colorful, and fun.

Where I have a bit of a concern is that it seems to exist in an in-between space where it's not a comprehensive grammar guide but neither is it an in-depth exploration of one particular topic. Instead it's an incomplete round-up of a few different topics (Sometimes quite literally. It identifies 8 parts of speech but only discusses 7 of them.). It would be very handy for reinforcing the concepts it does explain, but that would necessitate it being used in parts as it's unlikely classroom units would be covering only this particular mix of topics at one time. That said, it would also be a good book to have on the shelf of a classroom or school library as an enrichment read for interested students.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

This book is a fantastic resource for grammar concepts. I could see using this book page by page in my classroom. The progression from parts of speech to grammar to literary devices is well thought out.

The content is so strong. If there is one thing I didn't like, it is that the pictures are a little young for the complexity of some of the concepts. The pictures feel very Early Childhood/Early Elementary, but I see this book as being most useful for 4th grade and older.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for sharing a digital ARC with me in return for an honest review.

An excellent guide for grammar! The book is also beautifully illustrated. I would highly recommend for lower primary aged students. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

Thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group for the ARC of this! We had already read and enjoyed the earlier edition of this book and were interested to see if it was updated.

My 8 year old really enjoyed this, even a second time around, especially the illustrations of silly situations (raining cats and dogs for one) I thought it was mostly easy to read aloud, to understand, and to enjoy looking at. Definitely one I like to have in our homeschool arsenal.

This book is such a terrific, cheerful resource for kids (and maybe even some adults). First, it covers each of the parts of speech. This section is followed by guides to grammar, everything from capitalization to collective nouns to punctuation, including my bete noir, the comma. Finally there is a section on literary devices; just a few of the ones that are here include cliches, analogies,onomatopoeia and more.

This book offers an entertaining, at times funny, and very helpful guide to grammar. It just might need a spot on your child’s bookshelf.

Many thanks to Quarto Publishing Group – Walter Foster, Walter Foster Jr for this title. All opinions are my own.

This title was published on 05 April 22.