If you’re one of those people who rues the demise of proper grammar in the English language, here’s a book for you! Artists Rhode Montijo and Tony Preciado conceived of Super Grammar in an effort to make learning more accessible and interesting to kids. Intended to be the first in a series of educational books called Illustrating the Point, each part of the English language is given a corresponding “super” character and ascribed special powers.
The Period, The Comma, The Question Mark, and The Exclamation Point are even conceived of as a super team called The Super Symbols who will work to keep your sentences protected from harm.
Never—ever—underestimate the power of punctuation! They may be small, and they may not be words, but these guys have a lot to say in your sentences. These super symbols give great functionality, clarity, and resolution to each and every one of your sentences. Each punctuation symbol has a specific power, and once you’ve mastered their code, The Super Symbols of punctuation will work to keep your sentences bullet-proof.
Other characters include The Adverb who has “the ability to modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs in a sentence. By modifying these words, she helps answer these questions: how? when? why? and where?”
Some other fun characters include:
As for The Fragment, the pair writes: “watch out for this character because there’s nothing he loves more than putting your sentences on shaky ground. And his super powers include sneaking into your writing and making your sentences crumble and fall apart, just like he does.”
Go here to learn more about the book and see early sketches of the characters. First person to spot a grammatical error on their site wins a free copy of the book (which is still being created and looking for a publisher, by the way)!
Side note: If the book is as entertaining as the bios of each artist, readers are in for a treat:
Illustrating the Point is conceived and developed by Tony Preciado and Rhode Montijo. The two artists first met while working together on the stop-motion animated feature James and the Giant Peach, and they soon learned that they had a lot in common, including (but not limited to): A love of comic books, a taste for breakfast cereals, and an extensive knowledge of Cartoon Law*. It only made sense that they join forces—and so they did!
The power resulting from this alliance was mighty, and because they both understood that with great power comes great responsibility, they decided that they should help people improve their grammar.
Tony Preciado!By day… he is a special effects artist and 3D computer animator. He started his career with the stop-motion animated feature The Nightmare Before Christmas. Tony’s other film credits include Star Wars: Episode I–The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II–Attack of the Clones, Starship Troopers, Deep impact, and Galaxy Quest.By night… Tony is a short story writer and grammar enthusiast with a knack for finding double negatives and subject/verb disagreements.
Rhode Montijo!By day… he is a children’s book author and illustrator. He wrote and illustrated his first book, Cloud Boy, and more recently has completed and published his second book, The Halloween Kid. Rhode also illustrated Greg Trine’s Melvin Beederman Superhero series, Vicky Rubin’s The Three Swingin’ Pigs, and Gary Soto’s Lucky Luis.By night… fueled by healthy amounts of red licorice, Rhode works on developing new stories, drawings, and sculptures to share with the world.*Cartoon Law: the specific rules and properties that govern the logic, reason, and physics within the cartoon realm.