Punctuation to the Rescue is a fun, educational book about the importance of punctuation. It was a little all over the place in a few parts, but overall cute. May be a little long for younger grade children.

Cute, but a little all over the place. Very reminiscent of The Crayons series, the comma, period, question mark, and exclamation point are feeling unappreciated and take a vacation. They then find a need for themselves at an island of chaos. And then there’s an ending throwing in one of Herve Bazin’s proposed punctuations.

I love this book. When I read the first pages, I thought it was going to be like "The Day The Crayons Quit" or "Inside Out" but it actually is quite different. It is a story that brings out the purpose of 4 punctuation marks and a bit more. I wish that it featured Speech Marks too as they are sorely missing in most of my students' writing.

What punctuation mark would you be?

Perhaps you'd be direct like the period.

Or, maybe you'd prefer to weave longer, more complex sentences together like the comma.

Tell us!

Okay, that's it for my burst of "cleverness". Seriously, I admire the author for how well she was not only able to create distinct characters for the four basic punctuation marks but have each of them stick to their characteristic chatter. The illustrations were colorful and lively, with each character showing a unique personality and various reactions. Feeling unappreciated, they set out from their lighthouse library for a vacation on a fun island. Only one problem. Well, more than one. They run into a few sailing problems, including a nasty shark and wind up on the Island of Chaos instead. Why Chaos? There punctuation is ignored and words and creatures run amuck. Check out the various characters they meet, all shown running about creating mayhem. Seeing the chaos their absence can create, the four punctuation marks decide to stay long enough to restore order and, in the process, realize their own importance.

I enjoyed the story and have to admit to laughing aloud when Question Mark asked the age old question of "Are we there yet?" Definitely a unique way of introducing children to the importance of using correct punctuation. Although aimed at young readers, I can actually see where it might be a hit with young adult readers or, heck, adults, too. It's whimsical and full of quirky characters while sharing a teaching moment (or a few). A delightful combo of words and pictures. Thanks author #CherylOlsten and #FleecydalePress for sharing this with me. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be sharing with teacher friends and others who might enjoy it.

A fun and educational book about the importance of punctuation. It is a bit lengthy for younger grades (1sr-2nd), but could be broken into smaller chunks of read aloud time.

The illustrations in this are whimsical and colorful and so well done, I loved them! And the story is good for helping kids understand punctuation in a fun and interesting way. This would be a good addition to any home library.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Punctuation to the Rescue. I was really excited to read this story, as the concept of punctuational characters is not common, but it was kind of a let-down. It wasn't a bad book, but it felt more story-driven than being educational about the purpose of punctuation. The overall story of the punctuation fixing then leaving the island didn't make a lot of sense to me, because how will the words stay organized without the punctuation? I think we will skip this one, but I did really like the concept!

A fun and adventure-filled picture book about the role of punctuation!
This book is a fun elementary read that would be a great pairing with a lesson./activity having to do with punctuation marks and their uses. I love how the author personified the different punctuation in ways that matched how the mark is used in real life (like the exclamation point being excitable and loud). I loved the 'Island of Chaos' bit, and this could be a fun thing for kids to do alongside the book characters (I also had no idea what a Pilcrow was and had to Google it while reading).
Overall a definite fun read!

Punctuation to the Rescue was so cute! The illustrations were absolutely adorable and kept my 4 year old engaged and laughing through every page. I think the target audience is closer to early elementary school as my son didn't truly understand all of the different punctuations...I even learned something new with the explanation of pilcrow. Overall, I think this would be a fun way to introduce punctuation to an elementary aged kiddo.

As a side note, we read this through NetGalley reader on a desktop and I believe some of the text boxes didn't display correctly and covered up some of the illustrations.

I had high hopes for this book as I'm teaching punctuation but ultimately this felt more story and less actual information on punctuation to me. The punctuation get lost and they end up on the island of chaos. They are forced into saving the day and making sentences out of the words that have been running wildly around the island. Then they have fixed everything -- but when they leave wouldn't the words be in chaos again without punctuation? The informational part focused almost entirely on period (with some references to exclamation marks) and really didn't talk about the other punctuation marks. I suppose it might be a light-hearted and fun way to talk about punctuation in early elementary. I can see my son's teacher in Kindergarten using it to introduce kids to punctuation but anything more than that I don't think it would work. This was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

My daughter and I read this book together. She's not a very confident reader and there were quite a lot of tricky words but the storyline kept her interested to read to the end.

The story was good and it was beautifully illustrated, my only criticism would be that as a picture book some of the words might be too complicated for young children.

Overall, it was a lovely book to read and we enjoyed it.

This is a delightful book for upper elementary aged readers to teach them about punctuation in a really fun and silly way! I do think it was a bit long, but overall its an educational book that I think will draw its readers in while teaching them how important it is to use punctuation properly.

This book is perfect for kids learning grammar. It makes it easier to understand and to learn about proper use for punctuation.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me an advanced copy to review.

This book I think was needed. I don't see a lot of picture books that cover punctuation in a fun picture book format. I think this book would be really helpful for children just learning about punctuation. I love how when each punctuation mark speaks that they use they own punctuation symbol. Great way to review while you are reading. I will be requesting this book for my library.

A fun and factual picture book explaining and celebrating the importance of punctuation.

The colourful and quirky illustrations work well alongside this story, which is both entertaining and educational. The story captured the imagination of my children and cleverly introduced often-underappreciated punctuation and its purpose.

After a fun-filled adventure, order is restored with the help of excited Exclamation, curious Question Mark, the thoughtful pauses of Comma, and conclusive Period (or Full Stop as it is known in Australia).

With many thanks to Fleecydale Press, Cheryl Olsten and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review a digital review copy of this book.

This book would be an ideal resource for parents and teachers, to support young readers and explore punctuation in a fun and engaging way!

This children's book is terrific. It would be best suited for upper elementary and possibly EL classrooms. The only suggestion I have would be to make the italicized words a bit bigger to draw attention to them. I had to squint to see them. Nice job and I love the more advanced vocabulary words.

I thought that this was a great book, but it was a little bit lengthy for a kids' book. I found myself getting a bit lost halfway through before the story got back on track. I think the key to getting this book down to a more reasonable length would be removing the bit where Period falls into the water. I thought it didn't really add to the overall story, and it didn't serve any crucial purpose. However, every other plot point made sense, and helped the story move forward in a smooth fashion. As for the story itself: so clever! It's entertaining and, at the same time, it illustrates the importance of proper punctuation, and how we shouldn't take something that seems so simple for granted. Lastly, I adored how each punctuation mark had its own unique and distinct personality, even the "non-main" characters. Bravo!

I can't resist a children's book about punctuation. In "Punctuation to the Rescue", our characters set sail in search of adventure...and find an island in desperate need of, well, punctuation.

This is a cute and playful way to introduce kids to—or remind them about—the different roles that basic punctuation serves. Like other picture books on the same topic, this sticks (mostly) to punctuation basics (periods and commas, question marks and exclamation marks), though it also has some playful points to make about the shifting use of punctuation over time (e.g., the pilcrow). I'm thinking that will go largely over kids' heads, but it's a fun addition for the adult reader.

The art is fun and colorful, and I *love* the idea of a lighthouse library. The formatting of the text brings things down a bit—feels a bit as though text boxes were inserted over the art in Canva, without much care to how the alignment looks or to text size (italicized text is about half the size of roman text here). Still a fun story and nice art, of course, just makes it feel a bit less professional.

Here's to more playful punctuation picture books!

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Loved it!! As a teacher I can't say enought about how cute this book is! It should be on the required reading list for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders!. The illustrations is wonderful. The storyline and setting are both good. With lots of adventures happening you do not even notice the correct method of when and how to use punctuation is being taught to you. Especially love how the punctuatios have to become the heroes to get the word chaos in order and bring peace to the island.

This was super cute! As a punctuation lover, I loved it. This would be great for introducing punctuation in an elementary classroom! I think kids would love to read this after learning about and practicing punctuation.