mehsi's review against another edition
4.0
I received this book from the publisher in exchange of an honest review.
I was delighted when I was selected for the blog tour for this book and then I also received a ecopy of the book. I couldn't wait to start reading and here we are now. I was in the mood for a punny word detective book and this one seemed perfect.
Meet Private I (yes, really), he just finished a case is kind of looking forward to having some quiet and rest.. but he won't have that for long as quite soon Mark, the question mark, bursts into the office to tell our Private I that he is the only one left as an uppercase letter. OH NO! That this can happen in Capital City, chaos will happen so it is up to Private I to get to the case and find out the hints.
We see him wander through the city, meet up with various characters, for instance ampersand and her twins q and p, and did you see hyphen jogging around? And then he gets his first clue which leads him to more delightful characters and eventually he solves the case. How, I am not going to be telling you, you will just have to read, but it was such a delight. I definitely hadn't expected that character to be the culprit. We learn why they did what they did, and I could definitely understand why they did what they did given the character they are.
All in all, this will surely delight kids. They can learn about the alphabet, about numbers, about punctuation and more. There are tons of puns related to all of this and I am sure that they will laugh themselves silly. Just like I did.
The art was also pretty fun, it was a nice style.
I had tons of fun reading this book and I would highly recommend this one to everyone. I can't wait to see what other cases Private I will have and what kind of things will happen next in this city.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
I was delighted when I was selected for the blog tour for this book and then I also received a ecopy of the book. I couldn't wait to start reading and here we are now. I was in the mood for a punny word detective book and this one seemed perfect.
Meet Private I (yes, really), he just finished a case is kind of looking forward to having some quiet and rest.. but he won't have that for long as quite soon Mark, the question mark, bursts into the office to tell our Private I that he is the only one left as an uppercase letter. OH NO! That this can happen in Capital City, chaos will happen so it is up to Private I to get to the case and find out the hints.
We see him wander through the city, meet up with various characters, for instance ampersand and her twins q and p, and did you see hyphen jogging around? And then he gets his first clue which leads him to more delightful characters and eventually he solves the case. How, I am not going to be telling you, you will just have to read, but it was such a delight. I definitely hadn't expected that character to be the culprit. We learn why they did what they did, and I could definitely understand why they did what they did given the character they are.
All in all, this will surely delight kids. They can learn about the alphabet, about numbers, about punctuation and more. There are tons of puns related to all of this and I am sure that they will laugh themselves silly. Just like I did.
The art was also pretty fun, it was a nice style.
I had tons of fun reading this book and I would highly recommend this one to everyone. I can't wait to see what other cases Private I will have and what kind of things will happen next in this city.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
alittleoverdue's review against another edition
4.0
What can I say - I'm a total sucker for puns. I loved Lazar's first pun-filled detective story in this genre and enjoyed this one almost as heartily as the first. A great choice for older kids and a fun complement to an English lesson...and adults will have plenty to chuckle about too.
david_l's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
This is a super-cute and smart story about letters, punctuation, and even a little about the computer keyboard. Keep an eye on the pictures, too, because they hold some fun Easter eggs!
toastyk's review against another edition
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Very punny book with a great cast of characters.
marr_dubb's review against another edition
5.0
This was such a fun story! A great way to teach punctuation and grammatical humor! Great for advancing beginning readers and so much fun. It reminded me of the whimsical fun from The Phantom Tollbooth.
jbrooxd's review against another edition
3.0
This didn't flow well for me as I read it, but there are some clever moments in the story and in the illustrations that I enjoyed.
backonthealex's review against another edition
4.0
Capitalizing on the fun of her first book, Tara Lazar returns to the Al F. Bet detective agency for another caper. It seems Question Mark was all bent our of shape because all the uppercase letters in Capital City has gone missing and to emphasize his point, he had brought along Exclamation. Would Private I take the case? if he didn't solve this one, with all the capital letters gone, there would be incomplete sentences dangling everywhere. What results, as Private I tries to solve the case, is a punny introduction to punctuation when he tries to interview them. They are all too busy to talk, only the Quotation Twins are willing to talk: "Yeah, something's definitely up, besides us...But don't quote us on that." This is written with the same kind of hard-boiled film noir mystery way of speaking and illustrations as 7 Ate 9. Once again, I found it did not work with my younger readers who are 4-5 years-old, but it did work better with kids 6+. My favorite part was the appearance of the Grammar Police represented by Elements of Style and the Chicago Manual of Style.
wordnerd153's review against another edition
3.0
All the upper case letters in Capital City have disappeared! Luckily, Private I is on the case. He tries to question a bunch of punctuation marks, but they are too busy. Then he finds a clue at the local cafe, but he can't make heads or tails of it. Private I is feeling blue until he notices a faint glowing coming from Cursive Loop in the abandoned part of town. Will he find the missing letters or be left out in the cold? Similar in tone to Lazar's "Seven Ate Nine," this is a silly story that relies heavily on punctuation puns for laughs. A lot of the jokes will be lost on younger readers, but they will still enjoy the mystery. Ideally, this book would be used as a classroom resource when teaching punctuation.