Review by Pam Nelson at News and Observer

You can read Pam Nelson is a grammar expert and book reviewer at the Raleigh News and Observer. She has graciously reviewed my book, I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth's Head, and you can read the review here!

Book Review

What the Readers Are Saying

Here's what some of the readers are saying about I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth's Head. It's not too late to order it for your Christmas presents at www.AuntRuthGrammar.com.

What Readers Say

As a teacher and lifelong student of the English language, I am always looking for fresh material aimed at presenting the essentials in a manner that will be easily grasped. This book is a rare find! It approaches the subject with a fun, light-hearted style that is a joy to read. Using humor to get the points across, Joel Schnoor masterfully presents some of the most frequently abused grammar rules through comical short stories. Everything here is family friendly. I would guess that children as young as 4th grade would enjoy the humor and benefit from the lessons taught, but even an adult with a keen eye and love for the language will be challenged to catch ALL the puns and allusions hidden in this one.

To help drive home the grammar points, the book is equipped with an appendix that reiterates the specific rules presented throughout the stories by offering example sentences of correct and incorrect usage. There is also a very useful table of commonly used irregular verb conjugations. This is a funny book but it covers some serious grammar.

Anyone looking to avoid the pitfalls of the English language, or to teach others to do likewise, will find this book to be an entertaining and useful guide. -- M.S. Hahn

I taught English for Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools for 10 years, and I wish this book had been available then! It gives traditional English usage and grammar a shot of adrenaline and never lets up! My own children love the stories, and have had the added benefit of learning usage rules along the way. Adults, too, can benefit from the information (and enjoy the stories!). This book ought to be used by every school system in the country, home schoolers, and anybody else who wants to conquer the nuances of the English language, once and for all! -- J. Steinhauser

If you're like me, learning something and having it stick with you long term isn't always easy (or fun). I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth's Head makes learning grammar rules so entertaining that you don't even realize you are learning grammar rules that we all should have learned long ago and that you will retain for life. But don't think of this book as a text book. If you want, you can read it for the pure enjoyment of following the relationship between Aunt Ruth and her "annoying" nephew. It's funny, and touching, and will keep you reading story after story wondering where Aunt Ruth will take you next. The back of the book has all of the grammar rules from the stories spelled out with examples which makes this book a handy desk reference as well. So this book works on many levels for a wide range of ages. It will put a smile on your face and make you a better writer in the process! Two thumbs up from me! -- K. High

Grammar has always been my least favorite subject.I laid an egg on Aunt Ruth's head, is the first and only grammar book that I have enjoyed reading. It is very easy to fall in love with the characters of this book. I am looking forward to more books from this author. This is a must book for any library. -- T. Anderson

My 10 year old fell in love with I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth's Head -- and even begged for MORE Aunt Ruth stories! This is the first and only grammar book that I have actually enjoyed reading. The writing is clear and entertaining and the characters teach without preachiness. I am looking forward to more books from this author. This is a must book for any library. -- D. Jackson

The Bedbug Has Arrived!

Friend and writer Athlyn Green's book, The BedBug Who Wouldn't Bite, is now available!

Discover the joy of the BedBug!

I encourage you to buy this delightful, well done book! Congratulations, Athlyn!!!

Drilling for Excellence

Aunt Ruth Grammar Drills for Excellence, a set of worksheets that is a companion document to I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth's Head, was released today and is available for purchase on www.AuntRuthGrammar.com. The worksheets, currently available on CD, comprise about 130 pages of questions and answers. It's perfect for the classroom or home school setting.


Preface

Communication is a funny thing, and it is important enough that we ought to take care to ensure that we get it right. Nearly every day, though, I find that I have made some blunder, and that reminds me of the fact that none of us is perfect. As one of my editors was reading the chapter on split infinitives in I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth's Head, he found an unintentional split infinitive. Even when I try to be careful, I am capable of getting it wrong.

Mastering grammar is a lifelong process. For those of us who enjoy playing with words and writing as succinctly as possible, it is an enjoyable journey. For others it is no doubt dreary (at best) and perhaps embarrassingly cumbersome – the albatross that refuses to fly away.

Just as some will shout with glee when presented a math puzzle, and others will shriek and faint if they spy a fraction from a hundred yards away, so it is with anything that smells of an English grammar lesson. There are those of us in life who perk up when we sense a pun in the air or when we observe the turn of a phrase in a favorite piece of literature. We laugh; we weep; we rejoice; we despair. There are also those of us in life who could not care less that the proper phrase is “could not care less” and not “could care less.”

It is important to learn multiplication tables. Having an argument with the cashier at a grocery store when you are purchasing eight items at twelve cents each, because he or she says the total is ninety-six cents and you think the total should only be ninety-four cents, is not good for anybody.

So it is with grammar. Speaking or writing clearly is not a luxury. It is a responsibility. Granted, most of us learn to speak in a way similar to the rest of the inhabitants of the household where we were raised, for better or for worse. All of us, though, can improve from that point going forward. Sure, it can be tough trying to resolve dangling participles or catching the split infinitives, but we all should be able to learn how to match verbs with subjects and pronouns with verbs. This is he, not this is him. Each of us is capable, not each of us are capable. Its color is green and its back is scaly, not it's color is green and it's back is scaly. By the way, it's sitting on your shoulder.

Lessons (in nearly anything) can be fun and interesting, and that is the goal of these worksheets. It is my hope that these worksheets are useful to the student and teacher alike, and that the valuable lessons in I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth's Head will become even more accessible through the effort to produce these drills.

There are many who deserve thanks for their efforts in helping me review and edit this book. My wife, Michelle, and my children – Alex, Nathan, Laura, and Aaron (the four charter members of the Grammar Police) – have offered correction, insight, and encouragement when I needed it most. My sister-in-law, Anita, and my sister, Jen, also found mistakes and saved me from embarrassment. And finally, a huge thanks goes to my friend and grammatical conscience, Mr. Scot Hahn, for his herculean effort in helping me hone this document into a work of art.

Well, whether it is a masterpiece or not, I promise that it will be a boatload of fun. Teachers will love me; students will curse me; and the earth may be a better place because of it. At any rate, it sure beats shoving bamboo chutes underneath your fingernails.

Joel Schnoor
December 9, 2009