Many Luscious Lollipops: A Book About Adjectives

World of Language

by Ruth Heller

“To further a child’s grasp of the meaning and function of adjectives, this gorgeous picture book provides enrichment and depth of understanding… A visual and auditory feast, designed to make language discovery appealing and rewarding.”
—Publishers Weekly

“An excellent and enjoyable introduction to grammar both for younger children who will respond to the verse and images and for older children who will get an overview of adjectives and their uses.”
—School Library Journal

“The brilliantly colored illustrations are grand attention grabbers that give the unabashedly technical terms real punch.”
—Kirkus Reviews

What is an adjective?
 
An adjective never fails to add details to what you write and say.
A MESMERIZING, COLORFUL and GLITTERING display.
A WET and SOGGY day.
RAINY, WINTERY and GRAY.
 
Explore language and discover how to identify and create many different types of adjectives from demonstratives to articles, to proper adjectives.
 
Dedicated to helping children learn a variety of nonfiction subjects, the Explore series uses pitch-perfect rhyming text and brilliantly illustrated images to make learning fun.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Nonfiction, Language, School, Teaching, Education

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Author and illustration with a passionate interest in Korean culture. She lives with her husband in San Francisco, California.

Reviews

[Douglas Larson]

This is another in Ruth Heller's series of illustrated guides to parts of english speech written for young children. There are about 8 or 9 of these books (one each on nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, interjections, pronouns, collective nouns and more). In each book in the series Heller presents the topic so clearly and so well that everyone, adults and children alike, come away with a solid understanding of the subject. While I did moderately well in english in grade school, junior high and high school, there were various details about some aspects of grammer that I never grasped very well. I wish Heller had written these books back when I was young.

The other astounding and remarkable aspect to this series of books is that Heller also did all of the illustrations herself. I believe that is something of a rarity for an author to create an illustrated book and to do both the text and the illustrations. Heller's command of the art of illustration is as good as her command of the english language.

If you were ever, or perhaps still are, fuzzy about any aspect to parts of english speech, take a look at these books by Ruth Heller.

[Heidi-Marie]

A very entertaining way to teach a child about adjectives. It almost seems like to much to convey in one quick read in a storytime. I could see an entire class being done with this book, where it can be broken down a little at a time and examples can be made so that the book is more effective than one straight read-through. Books in this "series" would be good to have around the home as children are growing up. Even I, the editor and English major, realized some "rules" of adjectives that I didn't quite know before.

[Beckie Coldiron]

I really wish I would of known about this book when I was learning about adjectives! Honestly, Ruth Heller is able to really break down what adjectives are and teach a lesson, without even pulling out a worksheet! I think this book would be a great hook for teaching children about adjectives. Furthermore, you could use this as a model, and then make a class book on adjectives or any other grammar term! Not to mention, the visuals in this book are fantastic, and will definitely help those visual learners. I'd recommend this book for children in second through fifth grade.

[Erin Burke Edwards]

Annotation and Comment:
My students LOVE this picture book. It is so much more exciting than a boring old grammar book or worksheets. They learn all about adjectives and have fun at the same time! I have several other Ruth Heller books that I use that are also about parts of speech. The pictures are bright and eye-catching. The story is written with strong rhythm and rhyme.

[Debbie]

I liked this book. I loved the types of adjectives addressed. I love the pictures and the poetry of the book.

[Amanda Jensen]

This book is FANTASTIC for teaching about adjectives. Every book is packed full of interesting and exciting words!

[Dolly]

We've enjoyed a lot of the books written by Ruth Heller - the lyrically rhyming narrative and bright, colorful illustrations are certainly appealing and the educational content is often helpful for parents and children (I got a few good reminders of some of the more obscure grammatical rules.) At times I feel there is a disparity between the advanced level of the grammar being presented and the target audience of the book, but on the whole, we really enjoy these books.

My only complaint with this book is the evil presence of a clown in this book. (Okay, maybe not evil per se, but distractingly unpleasant in my opinion. And he appears three times; not only within the pages, but lurking on the end pages, too. He even resembles Tim Curry's version of Pennywise the clown. (shudder) I've made it no secret that I dislike clowns, and for some reason they seem to pop up in a lot of the books we've read recently. I expected it in Clown and Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Circus Clown and even in Young Cam Jansen and the Circus Mystery, but it came as quite an unpleasant surprise here. I just quickly turned the page and moved on, but it decreased my enjoyment of the book.

Otherwise, this book is fairly typical of the other grammar books in the World of Language series by this author. So far we've enjoyed reading them all and we will certainly look for more at our local library.

[Elijah Adams]

Many Luscious Lollipops: A Book About Adjectives by Ruth Heller is a splendid book that helps children learn the proper use and understanding of adjectives. It details all the facts about adjectives one might wish to know with a pleasing rhyme scheme that helps children remember the rules of adjectives. The illustrations used are very detailed and are quite soft despite the many uses of bright colors. The illustrations are quite large usually taking up the entire page which serves to maintain the child's attention as they learn about adjectives. On the very last page is a handy guideline children can use to better remember the rules for many adjectives. Many Luscious Lollipops is a very useful informational book that has surely helped many children with their grasp on how to use adjectives correctly.

[Jessica Sommers]

This book was all about explaining what adjectives are and showing many different types of pictures and then describing what they are like. Each page goes into great detail at explaining many differnt types of things. Foe example, there was a picture of a rainy day and this is how the author described it, "A WET and SOGGY, DRIZZLY day, RAINY, WINTERY and GRAY.

When I first picked up this book I did not know what to expect, but I ended up loving this book! This would be a great book to use when you are teaching what adjectives are! I loved the detail of the illustrations and the words the author used to describe the different objects.

This book would be great to use in a classroom when they are teaching a lesson about adjectives! It is a very fun way to learn about what they are and to see many examples of it.

[Nancy Kotkin]

Text: 5 stars
Illustrations: 5 stars

Outstanding picture book about adjectives. Published in 1989, it's not recent, but adjectives haven't changed since then. The rhyming text manages to convey a lot of information. Both the meter and the rhymes feel very natural. All the adjectives in the book are capitalized and appear in a larger font size so that they stand out from the rest of the text. Includes helpful visuals on comparatives and superlatives. Also introduces irregular adjectives.

The illustrations are stunning. Page layouts are superb as well. An excellent resource for children to learn grammar in a fun, non-threatening way. Part of Ruth Heller's World of Language nonfiction picture book series about the various parts of speech. Highly recommend.

[Lyndsey Hurm]

This is a great book to use for teaching children about adjectives. I would have them do something each time they heard an adjective throughout the story. I would try to make it very fun and interactive. I could also use this book to teach math by having the students count how many adjectives are in the book and make a chart or something math related... The illustrations are also very bright and colorful and would grab children's attention.

[Kelsey Vayens]

This book is a picture book that focuses on teaching the concept of adjectives. This book resembles the math start series books yet is the English Language Arts version of the series. For this book, Heller uses rich adjectives to portray a simple story. This book serves as a great tool for teaching younger students about the concept of adjectives. The author highlights various types of adjectives and can inspire students to spice up their own writing using richer adjectives.

[Rebecca Tredway]

Phenomenal little book. Seriously. I learned more in this book than I did from an entire semester of Grammar in college. I still struggle with grammar even though I'm a certified to teach middle school English! If I was teaching in any context, I'd purchase all of Ruth Heller's books. (They may end up on my Christmas list this year because I'm a big word nerd.)

[Pynteya Bate]

I love this book!!! My partner and I read this book for first garde students and they loved it!! Some words were difficult for them, but they understood most of them. Some students even used the adjectives from the book in their activity describing the lollipops.I can see how this book can be a little overwhelming, but it could be broken into the small parts to make it easier.

[Megan B]

Excellent, educates on the many different kinds of adjectives there are and how to use them. Kinley did see value in the book but probably 70% of it went over Kinley's head and will be a much better fit in a few years.

[Nancy]

I am a bit confused as to what age this book is directed towards. Young children would need a great deal of prior knowledge to understand some of the concepts presented in this book. The illustrations are nice and there are some great adjectives in the book.

[Sebin]

A great book with eye-catching illustrations that will grab a young child's attention. This book is ideal for teaching adjectives and the different types of adjectives such as possessive and demonstrative. The colorful and large pictures correlate well with the adjectives Heller chose in the book.

[Elizabeth]

This is an interesting book that can be used to introduce the use of adjectives to students. Students can draw a picture or take a photograph of something they enjoy, and write the adjectives they think best describes the picture.

[Michael D.]

This is an excellent book by Ruth Heller which focuses upon parts of speech. An educator will love this book, with its artful and vibrant colors, in which to expose emergent readers to early grammatical constructs of writing development.

[Raina]

Beautiful (I should say it again, BEAUTIFUL) illustrations and simple text about lots of different kinds of adjectives. This series is imprinted on my brain, as I grew up with a set of the books. I was excited every time Heller released another title.

[Sara]

Even at a young age, I was a grammar nerd. This was one of my favorite books at a child. I probably learned that words like "bigger" and "best" were adjectives from this book. I still remember the giraffe page: "The taller of these two is the tallest of the three." :)

[Morgan]

This is an informational book about adjectives. This book explains and demonstrates adjectives, the different kinds of adjectives, and the different ways and rules for which they can be used. This is a great mentor text, especially for descriptive writing.

[Jillian Ware]

This is a great learning tool to use in classrooms. It makes learning fun and very colorful. Younger students will love this book and will be learning as they are reading it. This was a neat way to introduce all these different grammar words.

[Kimberly]

You know, this one is very old (1989) and the illustrations are borderline creepy now because they are so outdated, but I still kinda liked it. This was a very thorough explanation of adjectives, set to a jaunty little rhyme.

[Theresa]

Many Luscious Lollipops: A Book About Adjectives (Paperback)
by Ruth Heller
Third grade an amazing book that looks at the use and various a sundry concepts of adjectives to explain them to students, and teachers in a concise and real way

[Sarah]

As with Heller's other language books, she sets out with good intentions but her style, both the pictures and text, just doesn't do it for me.

[Leah]

When my brain hurts, when I have too much homework, when I'm feeling sad...I simply remember how AWESOME Ruth Heller's children's books about grammer (grammer!) are, and then I don't feel so bad.

[Barbara]

This book about adjectives is brightly illustrated to show students the many ways adjectives are used in the English language.

[Alyson (Kid Lit Frenzy)]

It would be fun to play with some of Heller's books with 3rd to 5th graders especially when talking about writing and things like say...Adjectives. Fun book - book in illustrations and text.

[Amanda Davenport]

great teaching grammar book