The Know-Nonsense Guide to Grammar: An Awesomely Fun Guide to the Way We Use Words! - Heidi Fiedler - ★★★.¼

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AUTHOR: Heidi Fiedler
ILLUSTRATOR: Brendan Kearney
GENRE: Language (Grammar)
PUBLICATION DATE: April 1, 2017
RATING: 3.25 stars.


This is a beginner’s guide to the eight parts of speech, grammatical usage, and literary devices in the English language. The content seems mostly well-planned, but there were some areas I wasn’t much convinced about.

Each page contains a term, its explanation, and an example of its usage, with a related illustration on the right hand side of the page. The explanations are somewhat simple and easy to understand, even when they include difficult subtopics such as transitive verbs. At times though, there are some difficult words in the explanatory segment such as “vague” and “sophisticated”. Some of the terms, however, aren't explained too well and will leave its readers even more confused than before.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the Royal Order of Adjectives included in this book. So many children’s grammar books skip out on this topic. I wish the book had also included some mnemonic to make it easier to remember.

I didn’t understand why Punctuation and Commas needed to be two separate sections. Or why commas were the only punctuation mark deserving of a separate section.

What is hardly ever found in a children’s grammar book is a section on literary devices such as hyperbole, juxtaposition, anthropomorphism, and so on. This part was very interesting but also the most complicated section of the book so younger readers might find it difficult to grasp. Some of the content isn’t clarified well. For instance, the distinction between idioms and clichés doesn’t come out clearly as the examples sound quite similar. I also didn’t agree with the examples of irony – none of them denoted the exact meaning but were just examples of unexpected ideas. For instance, ‘A librarian who races monster trucks’ might be an odd one out but there’s no irony to this idea.

I loved the “note to know-it-alls” at the end. I guess by pointing out so many areas of improvement in a grammar book, I have proven myself to be a grammar snob and thus, ended up breaking the rule that tells us not to be too snobby and resist the urge to correct the mistakes crossing our path. That’s ironic!

In short, the range of topics is good but I am not too sure of its ease of understanding or about the accuracy some part of its content. The book is aimed at the 8-11 age group.

My thanks to Quarto Publishing Group and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Know-Nonsense Guide to Grammar”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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