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Exclamation Mark

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By Lauren
Exclamation Mark
Written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld
Scholastic Press, 2013. Unpaged picture book.

From the dynamic duo of Rosenthal and Lichtenheld comes this clever picture book about personified punctuation marks. Exclamation Mark has always stood out on the page. He can't squish down or blend in, so he decides to run away. He meets with Question Mark, who has some questions for him. Many, many, many questions. A whole page of questions. Exclamation Mark yells at him to "STOP!" Given some courage, he tests out more and more exclamations, and discovers that he has an important voice in the world. As Rosenthal writes, "It was like he broke free from a life sentence." The visual humor and punny moments make this a playful read aloud for all ages, while the simple and limited text are great for new readers. My favorite part was the use of elementary school-style ruled paper!
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curlyq said…
Ha ha ha! I love this book; it makes me so happy! The puns are grand and the illustrations and use of graphic text are just fabulous. What a team Rosenthal and Lichtenheld are! Thanks for the great review.
March 16, 2013 at 10:37 AM
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