I'm not sure how much the target audience will get out of this, considering I've seen the dreaded dangling participle in published novels (obviously, it's a tricky concept, even for adults). I think the explanation pages at the beginning might be a little bit confusing for kids; things are explained clearly, but with an unfortunate side effect of sounding a bit like a textbook. Once the book gets into the silly illustrated examples, things are much better. You can clearly see how the dangling participle changes the meaning of the sentence. (I did think a couple of the examples--Susie and her balloons and Ida and her ice cream--might've been a little confusing, though, as they could've been fantasy or simply figurative language, and not necessarily dangling participles in certain contexts.)

I probably would've liked this book when I was a kid (more than I did as an adult), but then I've always been interested in how languages are put together. I'm not sure if it would have a broad appeal for the general population of young readers, though.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. Although I liked the premise, I will not be able to purchase this title for my library.

What a fun way to teach about a participle. There are terrific examples of the wrong way to word a sentence followed by the right way. Each has a colorful illustration of what the sentence would convey.

​My favorite example is: “Driving to the top of the mountain, a large turtle was nearly squashed.” The picture showed a turtle driving around the mountain with a boulder careening down from above.

​The next page says: “Driving to the top of the mountain, our car nearly squashed a large turtle.” This drawing shows a turtle covering his head at the base of the mountain while a car head towards it.

​My husband and I have been playing with dangling participles since we read this book. We have had a great time even though the book is aimed at children. I am the reviewer, but I have to say, we both enjoyed it. It says a lot to be able to entertain a 69-year-old, ex-cop who is still a boy at heart. I can’t wait to read it to my grandchildren in a couple of weeks.

Kudos to Ms. Oelschlager!


I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a cute, grammatically intense, instructional children's book that teaches (very clearly) what a participle is, how it should be used and what changes in the meaning of the sentence when it is misplaced. The illustrations are the star of this show. They pair seamlessly with the text, showing how incorrect usage can lead to unintended, though highly comical, results.

The beginning is a bit clinical/technical, possibly making it difficult for a young one to absorb, so much so that I believe it would present a challenge even for my precocious 8 year old. My daughter would most likely be on the younger end of the targetted demographic but what she might lack in understanding I hope she will make up with appreciation for the silliness. Cute pictures aside, the lesson could very well go over her head and that would be a shame but who knows...let's see.

**************************************

After sitting down and finally reading this through with my self-proclaimed "Book Warrior", my initial prediction was pretty spot on. She found the beginning to be too long BUT after we got through the principal idea on the first pages, she started to become more invested. SO onward to the good bits we went. The silly illustrations convey succinctly what improper placement of the participle actually means. By the end my kiddo did grasp the concept, though just how well? We'll have to see. I must admit that she was happy to finally reach the last page because "the pictures were great but there were TOO many examples and I was kind of bored by the end".

Overall it was a really cool idea, in my opinion. It was a well thought out informative grammar lesson that I myself enjoyed but my young reader, who the pictures and silliness suggest it is intended for, was (to put it nicely) not overly impressed. It helped me identify what I possibly do wrong at times but my daughter...she'd rather go back to reading chapter books with some action. I asked her what her overall feeling for the book was and I was rewarded with a big sigh and an even bigger "MEH".

It was a tough decision as to how to rate this book since the verdict was split. I really enjoyed it and my daughter, well...did not BUT her appreciation, ability to grasp the concept and the amount of fun she had while reading it were all taken into consideration with regards to the rating.

Those are my two cents, I hope they help.

*** I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ***

<i>Don’t Dangle Your Participle</i> by Vanita Oelschlager is an exceedingly clever book that tackles the difficulties of understanding grammar and presents it to children in a ridiculously fun way. Frankly, I’ve always found specific pieces of grammar to be one of those things that’s difficult to understand and teach. While I may personally have a well developed grasp of how to write properly, I must admit that I had only a vague concept of how to explain a participle to anyone prior to reading this book, at least off the top of my head.

I’m coming to find that I’m rather fond of Oelschlager’s rather wonderful children’s books, each like this one dedicated to truly teaching something wonderful and important to young children. I can’t say that I’ve found a great many of those in recent years. Granted, I will admit that I don’t often read a lot of these and have really only started picking them up because I have a young niece, but it’s still been wonderfully pleasant to see that the books out there being made for kids are not all just focused around whatever silly little rhyme will distract the under fives for a period of time.

As for this book, I love the illustrations, I love the introduction, and I love the hilarious scenes that the incorrect grammar describes as well as how the author makes note to explain how to fix them as well. This is definitely one to get your children. You wont regret it.

What a fun and easy way to teach children about participles. Full of great illustrations and funny sentences this book will surely keep any child amused and interested. Learning vocabulary is hard enough, so why not make it fun. A participle is a verb that acts like a adjective (aka: growl into growling or growled). I highly recommend this book for any child having issues with this or just a refresher for adults. How soon we forget what we learned in school.
I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Grammar is a topic that is so hard to comprehend (and to teach!) A book with a quick but thorough explanation followed by pages of cute illustrations is definitely a winner! This book gave an explanation that was clear and direct, and helpful even as an adult reader. It could be used with an elementary student to introduce the concept of participles, or as a fun review for an older student.

I love the format of the "story" section of the book. It reminded me of the classic Amelia Bedelia books and her blunders. Each scenario and picture of the dangling participle is sure to make kids laugh out loud. Then as they correct the sentence, they can turn the page to immediately see how they did. This is definitely more fun than a traditional grammar workbook, and as a result will probably be even more effective.

Grammar can be a tricky subject to master but it's so foundational to one's education. I love that Vanita Oeischlager has unpacked some of the challenges of English grammar by crafting the delightful book, Don't Dangle Your Participle. The book opens with a helpful explanation of what a "participle" is and how it can "dangle." This explanation is accompanied by fun and colorful illustrations--quite a contrast to the dull black and white grammar books one often finds at school!

The remainder of the book provides double page spreads of sentences with and without dangling participles and accompanying illustrations so a child can see how disastrous (or confusing) a dangled participle can be.

I highly recommend this delightful book to help explain, reinforce, and review a bit about participles. Children may enjoy creating a few sentences of their own that help illustrate the importance of careful writing. Would love to see additional grammar concepts tackled by Vanita in such a fresh, kid-friendly fashion. A good help for any parent or grandparent who may be called upon to help a child with their grammar homework!

Disclaimer: I received a free digital copy of Don't Dangle Your Participle from NetGalley for the purpose of review. No other compensation was received.

This is such a fun and engaging way to explain English grammar. We really need more books like this.
The artwork is fantastic!
The sentences are a little garbled. I feel like they could be reworked. The correct ones seem to lose some of the joy or excitement intended. Perhaps consider having two sentences.
The font is a bit confusing when the sentence starts with "E".

Don't Dangle Your Participle is an educational book, however, the message will likely go over the heads of it's intended audience. The first two pages are a detailed description of participles and verbs. However, the rest of the pages are funny depictions of what happens when you dangle your participles (a girl melting in the sun eating ice cream rather than the ice cream melting in the sun).

The first two pages could be geared toward an 8-10 year old. However, the rest of the book is ideal for children ages 3-6. The mixing of ages is confusing. The 3 year old will find it funny but not understand it. The 10 year old will begin to understand it but the rest of the pages are too babyish. I'm not entirely sure the audience the author was striving for, but it seems a little off. I like the concept, but it was just not consistent.

I really liked the illustrations of situations described by wrong and right grammar. Humor really helps to remember things. However the first part with an explanations would have worked better, if the existing dialog had illustrated personages.

Great illustrations to give examples of dangling participles. I think kids will enjoy the examples and find them funning. Could be used in writing instruction for older grades. The explanation at the beginning is laid out step by step for kids to understand. I think it will still be something they will struggle with in their writing due to the lack of grammar instruction in school now and because a dangling participle doesn't necessarily "sound wrong" to them even though they can see it in the illustrations.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Don't Dangle Your Participle
explains this difficult concept through humorous pictures and text. This is a very fun book that shows kids what a sentence looks like with a participle that dangles ... and how to fix it. 5/5

Thanks to Vanita Books and NetGalley for the review copy, in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book is engaging and fun. I like how the vegiyof the book explains the concept of dangling participles in simple terms and conversational language. The illustrations are appealing and humorous. Overall, the book works to teach the concept of matching participles.

Thank you to Netgalley, Vanita Books and Vanita Oelschlager for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Don't Dangle Your Participle by Vanita Oelschlager has 22 pages and was published in 2014 by Vanita Books.

Don't Dangle Your Participle is a fun, educational book that will have youngsters laughing hysterically. This is a great teaching tool and should be in classrooms everywhere. 

I love that a picture riddle is included in the book and the answer is on the author's website. The illustrations are cute and funny and add so much character the book. This book is a perfect teaching tool to keep kids engaged in the learning process.

I will definitely read this book to my children. I highly recommend this book for school-aged children (particularly if they are learning parts of speech).

Vanita Oelschlager taught school for two decades and now teaches children via books! I've favorably reviewed at least two of hers before: A Tale of Two Daddies and A Tale of Two Mommies. This one is precisely one of those teaching books - aimed at something that's really quite important for any writer who doesn't want to look like a complete goofball! Or perhaps more accurately, an incomplete goofball?! I've noticed errors of the type demonstrated here in published books which I've reviewed, so no one is free of this pitfall.

I can never think of 'dangling participle' without thinking of Tim Curry in the Sylvester Stallone comedy movie Oscar. He plays a speech therapist, Doctor Pool...oh wait! I need to re-arrange that sentence! Curry plays a speech therapist, Doctor pool, who is being employed by Stallone's gangster character, "Snaps" Provolone, who is trying to go legit. At one point, Connie, Snaps's henchman, says, "Congratulations Doc! Will there be a honeymoon following?" and Dr Pool replies, "Watch it there Connie, you've got a dangling participle!" which Connie completely misinterprets of course.

That movie didn't do so well, although I love it, but there's nothing naughty or risqué in this book. Using examples of everyday children's activities: going to the zoo, eating ice cream (hopefully not an everyday activity!), skateboarding and so on, we get to see the error and then the correction, supported by some amusing and colorful illustrations by Mike DeSantis and there's even a page at the end showing how to draw and color a lion! I liked this book and think it well worth sharing with your children.

This was a fun easy read that explained participles. She uses hanging funny participles with pictures to show how to word your sentence to link the participle to the correct noun. It was really useful to my older elementary and middle school kids. My younger kids thought it was funny to read and it gave them a great introduction into participles. Vanita does a great job turning some difficult grammar concepts into a fun experience. She makes them easier and more fun for children to learn and understand. The illustrations are bright and fun!

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion. This was a neat idea, but I think it fell sort of short. The explanation about participles at the beginning but a little too advanced for smaller children. The pictures seemed to be targeted at a younger audience. I don't quite know how this could be better matched up. The pictures were great.

This short book provides the young reader with a painless grammar lesson. With witty illustrations and a lack of pedantry, the author demonstrates how to write clearly and effectively. A bonus is that the profits from this book will be donated to charity. A good book for teachers with a sense of humor.

This is a wonderful way to teach grammar to anyone, but it is aimed at a young audience to help them understand the importance of avoiding certain grammatical errors. The delightful illustrations are very effective in demonstrating how a dangling participle may create confusion for the hearer or reader. Well done! I hope the author plans to create more books like this for correcting grammatical errors. I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.