A fun little parable about a town where everyone talks in long strings of words without any stops or starts, all muddled together, until a woman with a bag filled with punctuation comes to visit. First she hands out periods, and the townspeople learn how to make sentences. After they're used to that, she hands out more punctuation, one by one - commas to separate things and ideas, question marks to help one ask things, quotation marks for when someone is speaking, etc - until finally, everyone is speaking to each other and understanding what they're saying! The text and illustrations are cleverly done, and reminded me a bit of Milo visiting Dictionopolis in The Phantom Tollbooth (one of my favorite books). A fun way for the kiddos to learn about punctuation!

#NetGalley

What an excellent way to explain why we use punctuation! The residents in a village once lived in incredible confusion and frustration. Everything they thought or expressed came out the same, in one stream-of-consciousness eruption. It was miserable chaos! Then one day a stranger arrived with helpful supplies. She had a period, to make thoughts stop. She had quotation marks to differentiate between thoughts and statements. She had question marks and exclamation points to communicate intent and commas to clarify meaning. Life was much, much better!

This is a great beginning chapter book for 2nd - 3rd grade and is a wonderfully unique approach to teaching about grammar. This is a fantastic accompaniment to explaining the basic rules of punctuation and will really help reinforce the concepts in an effective way to reach multiple learning styles. This would a great addition to elementary classrooms!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

I love the concept of this book but I feel the execution missed the mark a little. I was also expecting a picture book based on the age of the child in the cover illustration. I would love tho see his concept as a picture book, could be a valuable & engaging tool when learning/teaching punctuation..

This was not a picture book as expected. It’s not quite a chapter book and way harder than easy reading. This is a book that sets forth to explain punctuation in a story setting. At the beginning all words are just babble running into each other nonstop. Until a character comes in and hands somebody a period. Then more things arise and she hands them a ? Then an ! And then even some commas. It helps the world learn to communicate with each other and with themselves. Overall, the story was interesting but long. I see being most useful in an education setting with either teacher at home school.

I received a free digital copy of "Babble!" by Caroline Adderson and illustrated by Roman Muradov in exchange for an honest review of the work.

"Babble! And How Punctuation Saved It" toes the line between long picture book and early chapter book, with the most appropriate setting to read being aloud and on a parent's lap. The aural element of punctuation is missing if a child were to read this on their own without prior instruction on punctuation. The more dynamic word choice, coupled with the foundational explanations of punctuation, puts "Babble!" as a book to be read with a grownup or an enthused student returning to the basics after mastery.

Punctuation can be difficult for beginning readers, especially if their favorite punctuation is the question mark. And more so when it's preceded by, "But why does it matter?" The start of this book could be difficult for this audience. A stranger pops into a "once upon a time" village where no one has any punctuation to put meaning to their constant babbling. The narration takes on this monotonous quality for quite a few sections before punctuation is introduced--making the exposition almost frustrating to read. This could be either a motivator or demotivator for children reading on their own, depending on their feelings toward reading. Reading aloud with a caregiver could be a more engaging way to experience the text.

As the stranger introduces punctuation marks one by one to the villagers, as their need arises, those punctuation marks are printed large and red in the narration. They stand out against the black text and, by the end, create a visual on the page for how integral punctuation is to language. That use of color also bookends the story. The black text opens a door (maybe a portal?) into the village and their babble. On the final pages, the red punctuation covers the page as the stranger leaves just as miraculously as she came in. My digital copy of "Babble!" had some issues with scaling, so I cannot comment further on the illustrations beyond the use of color.

At around 48 numbered pages, this is a longer read for the child who is starting to learn punctuation. I can see "Babble!" used as a classroom book, with the teacher using small sections to focus on one type of punctuation. The "real world" applications for punctuation are readily understandable for young readers. However, these examples are expected and unimaginative such as the "Let's eat Grandpa!" explanation on comma usage.

"Babble!" ends with afterword, or more appropriately, a glossary of more advanced punctuation for the young reader wanting to know more. The explanations of dashes, ellipses, and semicolons are thorough and include short examples within their definitions.

This book is a bit funny but I am not sure who the intended audience is. There's too few images for younger kids and not enough text for older kids. Probably a tad bit too confusing for most kids. I am also not sure why some punctuation was included all in one page at the end rather than be included in the main story line.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for this ARC.

This is a unique book to read. I can't live in a village that involves a flat monotone of voices. The words leaving their mouths were different from the ones that stayed inside their heads. All this time that they are arguing inside their heads only? Kinda weird. Well, thank you to the kid that introduces the punctuations. She solved the problem. I love the storyline and the ideas about this book. What would happen if we lived without punctuation.

However, it is difficult for me to do the storytelling with the children using this book, and I don't this the children will get the vibes of humour in this book, but it is a good book to read.

BABBLE

In the village of Babble the townspeople are at odds with each other. No one listens and no one is understood. The village is in a state of constant turmoil until a stranger comes to town with a strange gift. It is a period. The people of the village start to use periods to end their sentences and a sense of order starts to form. So the stranger introduces other forms of punctuation like question marks and exclamation points.
However, a misunderstanding occurs that threatens the peace that had begun. Will the stranger be able to help?
BABBLE! is a delightful story about grammar. It has a charm that allows a somewhat dreary subject like punctuation become entertaining. The illustrations throughout are excellent. I loved BABBLE!. It is delightful and informative.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced digital edition of this book.

The people of Babble have a problem - they don’t have any punctuation to understand each other! When a little girl comes with a backpack of new and helpful tools, they are able to communicate in new and more effective ways.

This was really cute, and a testament to the power of punctuation! I enjoyed that punctuation was distinguished by putting it in red. A great way to show kids how each works to make communication better.

The illustrations were very sweet, and overall, I was impressed with this story.

I really thought this was a cool concept but it was hard to read aloud and I'm not sure my kids understood it.

I guess this book taught me a valuable lesson: It's really hard to read and understand something without punctuation. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for the people in this book to live without punctuation. But it made it so much harder for me to actually like this book because it's been taken to such an extreme that I couldn't relate at all. Of course, in real life, we don't talk with punctuation and that fact made everything somewhat ridiculous. I totally get that it's an artform to take something out of perspective and turn it upside down to accentuate its importance. I just couldn't get behind it.

A town plagued by arguments and incomprehensibility finds they might be able to communicate after a mysterious stranger brings them the gift of punctuation.

While reading this book, I became more and more confused. The purpose of the book was unclear and seemed to be a mix of ideas about language, emotion, and communication that made no sense when put together. It was unclear whether the book was making a commentary about emotions signalled through punctuation, or whether punctuation is the beginning of feeling and emotion.

As an English teacher (I have primarily taught English as a second or foreign language and I am very familiar with methods of instruction), I was also frustrated because this would neither be instructive to small children learning, nor for those older who were trying to learn the styles and conventions of English punctuation. And the confusing nature of the meaning of the book did not seem like it was for comedic purposes either.

Punctuation primarily serves to make written language comprehensible. Spoken language, unless part of a comedic skit with "punctuation noises", does not use punctuation. And as spoken language pre-dates written language, it makes zero sense for spoken language to be mutually comprehensible to people without written punctuation marks brought by a stranger. Punctuation also signals emotion in writing, and this often in conjunction with adjectives and adverbs. In this story, the village are unable to express or even use emotion in their voices before the stranger brings the punctuation marks and shows them to them. There also seemed to be several pedantic grammar sentences commonly used as examples in teaching to demonstrate the importance of importance of commas. Needless to say, the book was frustrating and confusing. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

I read this book voluntarily. Thank you to NetGalley for this free eARC to review this book honestly.

The power of punctuation in everyday communication - a very clever idea for a book! I could see this being shared in many classrooms. I particularly liked how the author used the color red to highlight the punctuation and make it stand out from the rest. A very enjoyable story with a memorable message!