Nitty-Gritty Grammar: A Not-So-Serious Guide to Clear Communication

This is a good, solid guide to basic grammar by two women who claim to be "nutty enough to have liked diagramming in school." Their book is clear. It is not boring. It even compares punctuation marks to traffic signals (a period is a stop sign, a comma a flashing yellow light). But its crowning glory is the nearly 30 cartoons--from Sally Forth, Beetle Bailey, The Far Side, and others--on the subject of grammar that are sure to delight anyone who is nutty enough to have liked diagramming in school. In our favorite, Hobbes tries to persuade Calvin that a pronoun is "a noun that lost its amateur status." Calvin, after pondering for a moment, writes it down. "Maybe I can get a point for originality," he says. --Jane Steinberg