The Amazing Pop-Up Grammar Book

Outfitted with a lavish complement of hinged paper doors and pull-tabs, this remarkable primer puts razzle-dazzle paper engineering in the service of a typically dry subject, the parts of speech. Noisy colors, busy cartoons of talking animals and hand-lettered text advertise dozens upon dozens of pop-up features, with a wealth of educational information crammed onto every page. Nouns, verbs and adjectives get a spread apiece, while such grammatical forms as adverbs and prepositions are given single-page overviews. Diversions include rotating paper wheels (""Don't stop! Keep moving! Verbs are action words""), sliding scrolls to illustrate plurals and possessives, and a reflective-paper mirror to acquaint readers with the pronouns ""you,"" ""I"" and ""we."" A closing ""Lift the flaps and make a sentence"" exercise reviews the previous material. The effect is chaotic, but verbal cues guide the eye through the kaleidoscopic cartoons. Adult encouragement may be necessary for readers more interested in the cut-out windows than the finer points of punctuation. Yet the authors have done an excellent job; their language lesson masquerades as a boisterous game. Ages 7-up. (Oct.)