Tag book review

Root for Ivan the Gorilla and Cap the Nerd

Reg Spittle Leave a comment

My only complaint about each of these books is that they are too short. The endings are great, but I longed to continue following the charming and clever characters’ lives.

In Schooled, by Gordon Korman, one of my favorite authors, Capricorn Anderson (Cap for short) is a teenager who has been raised and taught by his grandmother on a commune inhabited by just the two of them. He has never watched TV, interacted with other kids, nor eaten pizza.

But when his grandma is hospitalized after falling out of a tree and cannot care for him, he is sent to Claverage Middle School (nicknamed C Average by the students), where a series of events thrusts the naive eighth-grader under a spotlight that he cannot comprehend. His classmates and school are transformed in ways that will surprise and captivate you.

My love of Newbery Award-winning books continues with Catherine Applegate’s The One and Only Ivan. Ivan, a silver-back gorilla, describes his life while he is on display inside glass walls within a shopping mall.

When Ruby, a baby elephant raised in the wild, joins the mall’s animal family, Ivan engages a plan to transport them all to new lives.

Ivan (through Applegate) is a master storyteller whose words and actions are captivating. You are sure to enjoy his tale and his choice of words.

If you seek a distraction or just great books, I highly recommend Schooled and The One and Only Ivan.

Do You Write? Then Read Dreyer’s English

Reg Spittle 6 Comments

Do you write emails, blog posts, or books? Or English papers?

Benjamin Dreyer challenges you to go a week without writing these: very, rather, really, quite, in fact, just.

His book’s title, Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, may make you suspect it is like another lecture from your English teacher. But Dreyer’s entertaining, playful approach will feel more like time with your favorite uncle.

Dreyer, copy chief and managing editor at Random House, presents tips about grammar, punctuation, usage and much more.

What is the best way to judge if your writing is well-constructed? Read it aloud.

Rules are great, but they are meant to be broken. Don’t begin a sentence with “and” or “but.” Avoid contractions in formal writing. No passive voice or sentence fragments. He says there are times when good writers break these rules.

Dreyer believes words are “the flesh, muscle, and bone of prose.” And “punctuation is the breath…a comma sounds different than a semicolon.”

One of my favorite chapters is “The Trimmables,” a long list of redundancies, including “free gift, future plans, absolutely essential.”

Dreyer’s English is fun to read and his examples may make you chuckle while you learn how to improve your writing and editing.