In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss, gravely concerned about our current grammatical state, boldly defends proper punctuation. She proclaims, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. Using examples from literature, history, neighborhood signage, and her own imagination, Truss shows how meaning is shaped by commas and apostrophes, and the hilarious consequences of punctuation gone awry.
Featuring a foreword by Frank McCourt, and interspersed with a lively history of punctuation from the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to George Orwell shunning the semicolon, Eats, Shoots & Leaves makes a powerful case for the preservation of proper punctuation.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 12, 2004 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
- ISBN: 9781101218297
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781101218297
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781101218297
- File size: 318 KB
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- Text Difficulty: 1
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Reviews
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Publisher's Weekly
March 29, 2004
Who would have thought a book about punctuation could cause such a sensation? Certainly not its modest if indignant author, who began her surprise hit motivated by "horror" and "despair" at the current state of British usage: ungrammatical signs ("BOB,S PETS"), headlines ("DEAD SONS PHOTOS MAY BE RELEASED") and band names ("Hear'Say") drove journalist and novelist Truss absolutely batty. But this spirited and wittily instructional little volume, which was a U.K. #1 bestseller, is not a grammar book, Truss insists; like a self-help volume, it "gives you permission to love punctuation." Her approach falls between the descriptive and prescriptive schools of grammar study, but is closer, perhaps, to the latter. (A self-professed "stickler," Truss recommends that anyone putting an apostrophe in a possessive "its"—as in "the dog chewed it's bone"—should be struck by lightning and chopped to bits.) Employing a chatty tone that ranges from pleasant rant to gentle lecture to bemused dismay, Truss dissects common errors that grammar mavens have long deplored (often, as she readily points out, in isolation) and makes elegant arguments for increased attention to punctuation correctness: "without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning." Interspersing her lessons with bits of history (the apostrophe dates from the 16th century; the first semicolon appeared in 1494) and plenty of wit, Truss serves up delightful, unabashedly strict and sometimes snobby little book, with cheery Britishisms ("Lawks-a-mussy!") dotting pages that express a more international righteous indignation. Agent, George Lucas. (On sale Apr. 13)
Forecast:
With 600,000 copies of the Profile Books edition in print (up from an original print run of 15,000 in November 2003), it's obvious that Truss's book has struck a nerve. Her volume may not reach such dizzying heights here—perhaps in part due to timing (there can't be Christmas runs in April)—but it'll make a lot of Stateside sticklers very, very happy. -
School Library Journal
August 1, 2004
Adult/High School-The title refers to the "Panda" entry in a poorly punctuated wildlife manual that, if believed, indicates the panda is truly to be feared, especially after eating. Truss, a self-described "punctuation stickler," has written a humorous but helpful guide that was a surprise best-seller in England. The book has been exported without re-editing, so some of the humor and grammar are "veddy" British; however, much of the information and history of punctuation are universal. The author takes pains to distinguish British versus American usage in her discussions. She is horrified at signs like BANANAS' and express checkout lines for "15 items or less." The short chapters are easy to follow and the discussions are light yet substantial. Punctuation marks are discussed individually with known history, geographical differences, and common mistakes. Teens will enjoy reading for fun and even for elucidation; a lot of information is packed into this small book.-Susan H. Woodcock, Fairfax County Public Library, Chantilly, VACopyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Booklist
June 1, 2004
This impassioned manifesto on punctuation made the best-seller lists in Britain and has followed suit here. Journalist Truss gives full rein to her "inner stickler" in lambasting common grammatical mistakes. Asserting that punctuation "directs you how to read in the way musical notation directs a musician how to play," Truss argues wittily and with gusto for the merits of preserving the apostrophe, using commas correctly, and resurrecting the proper use of the lowly semicolon. Filled with dread at the sight of ubiquitous mistakes in store signs and headlines, Truss eloquently speaks to the value of punctuation in preserving the nuances of language. Liberally sprinkling the pages with Briticisms ("Lawks-a-mussy") and moving from outright indignation to sarcasm to bone-dry humor, Truss turns the finer points of punctuation into spirited reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.) -
Publisher's Weekly
June 5, 2006
In this pithy adaptation of her bestselling adult book of the same title, Truss wryly demonstrates the truth of her subtitle—sans comma. As she explains in her brief introduction, commas "can create havoc when they are left out or are put in the wrong spot, and the results of misuse can be hilarious." With the help of Timmons's energetic, often comically exaggerated cartoons, Truss shows just how
hilarious. The opening scene sets the humorous yet instructive tone: a panda walks into a library, eats a sandwich, then draws his bow and shoots two arrows. When the librarian asks why he has done that, the animal points to a book's definition of panda, which reads, in part, "Eats, shoots and leaves," apparently describing the species' diet rather than behavior. Several of the examples of comma commotion are common, such as the difference between the meanings of "Slow, children crossing" and "Slow children crossing"; or "Eat here, and get gas" and "Eat here and get gas" (the latter picturing a woman airborne due to bodily gas). Yet most of the scenarios presented take an original approach, among them side-by-side depictions of a classroom in which first a child ("The student, said the teacher, is crazy") and then his teacher ("The student said the teacher is crazy") indulge in inane antics. A final spread explains the grammatical reason for the varying meanings of each pair of sentences. Why, this will encourage kids to think twice about using, or not, a comma. Ages 4-8.
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Formats
- Kindle Book
- OverDrive Read
- EPUB ebook
Languages
- English
Levels
- Text Difficulty:1
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