NOTE: Official publication date is February 7, 2007! This book is on PreOrder. Order now and books will be delivered early, about two weeks before launch date! 

Vote! Swim? Run? Hop? Fly? Crawl? Picking a class pet has never been this wild, or this funny.

★ A STARRED REVIEW from Kirkus Reviews: “…truly exceptional…Read! Laugh! Enjoy!” ★

Bo and Jo are back with new adventures as their classroom votes for a new class pet. Counting, counting, counting… The goldfish wins! Cheers! But a goldfish just swims. Swim! Swim! Yawn! So the class votes again. This time the spider wins, until Bo panics. Shake! Itch! Run! Vote again. Think. Think hard. Vote wisely. Will the third vote finally pick a winner, and will Bo or Jo get their choice of pets?

VOTE: Verbing Wildly is Book 2 of the Silly Grammar Story series, and it tells the whole story with only verbs and adverbs. Verbs are blue. Adverbs and punctuation are black. And nouns? They’re pink, and they are not allowed 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, STARRED review

VERBS AND ADVERBS FOR KIDS

• Color-coded verbs and adverbs on every page make parts of speech easy to spot.
• Shows how verbs carry a story: actions, sounds, and feelings (Yawn! Frown! Cheers!)
• Introduces adverbs naturally: vote wisely, think hard, verbing wildly.
• A mentor text for writing with strong action words.

PERFECT FOR BEGINNING READERS

• Short, decodable action words for kindergarten and first grade.
• Repeated patterns (counting, counting, counting…) that build fluency and confidence.
• Expressive illustrations that supply the missing nouns as context clues.
• Fits Science of Reading and phonics instruction.

A CLASSROOM VOTE KIDS WILL LOVE

• Introduces voting, counting ballots, and living with the results: great for Election Day or class elections.
• Social-emotional learning: handling disappointment and giving something new a chance.
• A perfect read-aloud before your class chooses its own pet.
• Every word is an action, so kids can act out the whole book!

SILLY GRAMMAR STORY SERIES

Book 1: FROWNS: Nouns, a Few Adjectives, a new kid at school finds a friend in a story told with nouns and adjectives.

“An entertaining look at starting a new school and some foundational parts of speech.”—Kirkus Reviews

Book 2: VOTE: Verbing Wildly, the class pet vote told with verbs and adverbs.

★ “Read! Laugh! Enjoy!”—Kirkus Reviews STARRED review

AUTHOR: Darcy Pattison

Children’s book author and indie publisher DARCY PATTISON has written over seventy-five fiction and nonfiction award-winning books for children. Six books have received starred PW, Kirkus, or BCCB reviews. Awards include the Irma Black Honor award, six NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books, six Eureka! Nonfiction Honor book (CA Reading Assn.), two Junior Library Guild selections, two CLA Notable Children’s Book in Language Arts, two Notable Social Studies Trade Book, three Best STEM Books, a Green Earth Book Award Long List, an Arkansiana Award, and the Susannah DeBlack Arkansas Children’s History Book award. She’s the 2007 recipient of the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award for Individual Artist for her work in children’s literature. Her books have been translated into eleven languages. 

ILLUSTRATOR: John Joven

John Joven is an illustrator and painter. His work moves between illustration and painting as independent artistic practices. In his editorial projects, he works digitally with an organic and expressive visual language, where humor and sensitivity help communicate ideas. His Mims House title, A Little Bit of Dinosaur received a starred Kirkus Review, and the A Little Bit of Dinosaur series has been read 7.5 million times on the EPIC! reading app. In his oil painting practice, he finds inspiration and beauty in the everyday, the pop culture, and the ordinary. He has illustrated over seventy children’s books. Follow his recent work on Instagram: @jjovenart @johnjoven_