Language Mechanic Level a Book 1 Gr 4-7

What makes this book so great is that it demonstrates why grammar/puncuation rules are so important in a humorous way - a bit like "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" (although this book came first by 3 years). Each lesson begins with a funny, illustrated misunderstanding caused by improper grammar, then clearly explains the grammar rule. For example: You write: "The girl caught the ball running." Readers think: The ball was caught as IT ran. You mean: The running girl caught the ball. A few pages of exercises follow the example - including a couple of challenge exercises for kids who enjoy logic/thinking thinking games. Some kids might need more practice in the concepts being taught, particularly kids on the lower end of the recommended grades (4-7). I just throw in a couple of extra worksheets for the concepts my daughter struggles with. Overall, the Language Mechanic is quite comprehensive. It covers capitalization, run-ons and fragments, pronouns, modifiers, verbs, agreement, unnecessary words, punctuation (a separate section on commas), friendly letters, spelling and vocabulary. I give this book an A+. It encourages a child to think first about what he/she is trying to communicate, and then to use the correct grammar to make his/her point. The humor, the visual, the clear rules, and the well-thought out practice exercises are bound to help help any child learn and retain grammar rules.