Silly Grammar Series, Book 2: Starred Kirkus Review
FROWNS: Nouns, A Few Adjectives puts fun into Grammar
This fall, we launched Book 1 of the Silly Grammar Series, FROWNS: Nouns, a Few Adjectives. It's received a warm welcome. An easy reader, there are only 119 decodable words, so it's perfect for the beginning reader. To add to the fun, it's written using only nouns and adjectives! A first introduction to grammar, this is a fun book about welcoming a new kid to your school. (And, there's also the fun about kicking out the verbs!)
Book 2, VOTE: Verbing Wildly Arrives in February, 2027
PREORDER NOW!
Launch: February 9
The companion book, VOTE, arrives in February, and Wow! it just got a starred Kirkus Review! Wahoo! Book 2
In Pattison’s picture-book series entry, students vote on their next classroom pet in a story that only uses verbs and adverbs—with a few exceptions.
A room full of young students (portrayed with a wide array of skin tones) hold up pictures of various pet options: a fish, a rabbit, a spider, a bird, and others. The accompanying text reads, “Vote! Swim? Run? Hop? Fly? Crawl?” When the ballots are counted, the winner is a goldfish—but it turns out to be a boring pet (“Swim! Swim! Yawn!”), so the kids vote again.
This time, the class decides on a spider as their pet—but when one arachnophobic student panics, they try again. Finally, the students choose a rabbit, although one boy, who was advocating for a bird, is initially disappointed: “Frown!” But after
he meets the rabbit, he joins in his classmates’ delight. An opening note lets new readers know that verbs are printed in blue, adverbs and punctuation in black; nouns are pink “and should not be in this book! Who let them in?” Telling an entire story with such constraints is an impressive feat on its own, but making it this enjoyable and entertaining is truly exceptional. It’s a delight to read aloud, and Joven’s cartoon illustrations are wonderfully expressive and add greatly to the story.
Read! Laugh! Enjoy! -- Kirkus Reviews
Bo and Jo are back in a new adventure, this time voting for a class pet. But they don't agree on which animal will make the best pet! When one loses the vote, will they be a good sport or will they mope?
