Awards

• Commended for Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens (Up to Seven) 2014
• Commended for NAPPA Gold Awards (Preschool) 2013
• Runner-up for Buckaroo Book Award 2014
• Winner of California Young Reader Medal (Primary) 2015

Overview

He stood out here. He stood out there. He tried everything to be more like them. It's not easy being seen. Especially when you're NOT like everyone else. Especially when what sets you apart is YOU. Sometimes we squish ourselves to fit in. We shrink. Twist. Bend. Until-!-a friend shows the way to endless possibilities. In this bold and highly visual book, an emphatic but misplaced exclamation point learns that being different can be very exciting! Period.

Full Product Details

9780545436793

Table of Contents

Reviews

Praise for Exclamation Mark*""Punctuation with pizzazz . . . Funny and spirited (and secretly educational, but nobody will notice)."" --Kirkus, starred review*""With the celebrating-your-strengths angle, fun grammar lesson, and many classroom tie-in possibilities, this picturebook deserves a !!!"" --Booklist, starred review*""A perfect pairing of clever design and tongue-in-cheek humor . . . This one is a must-have!!!"" --School Library Journal, starred review""Rosenthal and Lichtenheld (the team behind Duck! Rabbit! and other titles) give punctuation personalities in this witty calligraphic jaunt . . . cleverly rais[ing] awareness of the ways punctuation conveys mood."" --Publishers Weekly

From the dynamic team that brought you Duck! Rabbit! (2009) comes this introduction to the most exuberant punctuation mark of all: the exclamation point. At first, !, a round circle with a face, doesn't like standing out in a crowd; in a line-up of seven smiling faces, which look like period marks, he's the only one with a line above his head. ! tries clever ways to fit in (flipping himself upside down, thereby squashing his tail) and even thinks about running away, until he meets a formidable force: the question mark. After a barrage of questions from ? ( Do you like frogs? Can you hula-hoop? ), ! finds his voice and tells him to STOP! From there, !'s confidence begins to grow and, soon, there's no stopping his unbridled joy. The spare, clever illustrations--all round, black-outlined punctuation marks with faces--are set on thick lined-paper, the kind kindergarteners use, and the overall design effect is lovely. The text is similarly simple, but a change in the size and color of the font signifies important moments. With thecelebrating-your-strengths angle, fun grammar lesson, and many classroom tie-in possibilities, this picture book deserves a !!!. -- Ann Kelley, Booklist starred review Punctuation with pizzazz.How does an exclamation mark learn his purpose? Pre-readers and readers alike will giggle and cheer to see the process. The setting is a warm yellowish beige background with a faint pulpy pattern and repeating horizontal lines with dotted lines halfway between them--penmanship paper. Each bold, black punctuation mark has a minimalist yet expressive face inside its circular dot. He stood out, explains the first page, as the titular protagonist looks on doubtfully. He tries hanging around with periods, but squishing his extension down into a spring doesn't really work; even prostrate, he just wasn't like everyone else. Period. (Hee! Rosenthal gleefully puns instead of naming any punctuation.) Mournful, confused, flummoxed,

Praise for Exclamation Mark* Punctuation with pizzazz . . . Funny and spirited (and secretly educational, but nobody will notice). --Kirkus, starred review* With the celebrating-your-strengths angle, fun grammar lesson, and many classroom tie-in possibilities, this picturebook deserves a !!! --Booklist, starred review* A perfect pairing of clever design and tongue-in-cheek humor . . . This one is a must-have!!! --School Library Journal, starred review Rosenthal and Lichtenheld (the team behind Duck! Rabbit! and other titles) give punctuation personalities in this witty calligraphic jaunt . . . cleverly rais[ing] awareness of the ways punctuation conveys mood. --Publishers Weekly

<p> Punctuation with pizzazz.<p>How does an exclamation mark learn his purpose? Pre-readers and readers alike will giggle and cheer to see the process. The setting is a warm yellowish beige background with a faint pulpy pattern and repeating horizontal lines with dotted lines halfway between them--penmanship paper. Each bold, black punctuation mark has a minimalist yet expressive face inside its circular dot. He stood out, explains the first page, as the titular protagonist looks on doubtfully. He tries hanging around with periods, but squishing his extension down into a spring doesn't really work; even prostrate, he just wasn't like everyone else. Period. (Hee! Rosenthal gleefully puns instead of naming any punctuation.) Mournful, confused, flummoxed, and deflated, the exclamation mark's line tangles and flops. Then someone unexpected arrives. Hello? Who are you? queries the newbie, jovially pummeling the exclamation mark with 17 manic inquiries at once. Stop! screams the exclamation mark in enormous, bumpy-edged letters--and there's his identity! The outburst's anxious vibe dissipates immediately (and the question mark is undaunted by being yelled at). Finally, the protagonist has [broken] free from a life sentence. Snapping up usages that match his newfound personality, he zooms back to show the other punctuation marks. The zippy relationship between exclamation mark and question mark continues beyond the acknowledgements page. - Kirkus starred review<p>

Author Information

AMY KROUSE ROSENTHAL was the author of the memoir Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life and the children's books Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons, illustrated by Jane Dyer; One of Those Days, illustrated by Rebecca Doughty; and Little Pea, illustrated by Jen Corace. Tom Lichtenheld is the illustrator of New York Times bestsellers Duck! Rabbit!, Exclamation Mark, Steam Train, Dream Train, Shark vs. Train, Mighty, Mighty Construction Site, and Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, which has been on the bestseller list for over three years. He has also written and illustrated a number of books, including What Are You So Grumpy About?, Cloudette, and E-mergency, a Publishers Weekly and Boston Globe Best Book of 2011. For more information, visit him at tomlichtenheld.com.

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