Meet four friends: Period is interested in books. Question Mark is interested in butterflies and trying to figure out what day it is. Exclamation Point is interested in exciting and loud things, while Comma can only think about one thing: food. One day, the four friends want to do something together but can't decide on what. They go along with Exclamation Point's suggestions and try swimming in the lake, jumping on a trampoline, and skydiving. But when their skydiving expedition lands them in a creepy forest and all they can do is argue about what to do next, they meet Semicolon, who has the best suggestion of all by uniting the four friends' ideas. Minimal, cartoonish artwork and wording grace the pages of this comical and eye-catching debut. Loose, sketchy black-and-white background scenes nicely complement the boldly colored, anthropomorphic punctuation marks, which are color coded to match their positions in the dialogue. With back matter that provides more in-depth explanations for each punctuation mark, this book is a great grammar tool for first-timers.

K-Gr 2Period, Question Mark, Exclamation Point, and Comma are four friends with very different interests who are searching for a plan that will please them all. Period wants to read a book. Question Mark likes butterflies; Exclamation Point only wants to do loud, exciting things; and Comma is preoccupied with food. Readers follow along as they try several activities, until a new friend shows them how to combine all their ideas into a perfect plan. A useful teaching tool, the book explains the meaning of different punctuation marks and provides many examples of their use. The characters and their speech bubbles each have their own color and speak in sentences that contain their own type of punctuation. Their faces convey a wealth of emotion and several well-placed details add elements of discovery to the reading. Unfortunately, the grayscale line drawings are rather spare, and on several spreads the perspective is slightly off, with the Semicolon lurking in the distance seeming to be smaller than it should be, or with parts of it hidden behind trees that are actually in the background. VERDICT Though based on a clever and useful concept, the dialogue is repetitive and the illustrations would benefit from more refinement. Recommended for purchase for collections with a specific need for books on language instruction and punctuation.Laken Hottle, Providence Community Library