Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What Is an Adjective?

Words Are CATegorical ®

by Brian P. Cleary, Jenya Prosmitsky (Illustrator)

Adjectives are words like hairy, scary, cool, and ordinary. Simple, rhyming text and colorful cartoon cats help children expand their vocabularies and gain an appreciation for the rhythm of language in this lighthearted book of rhyming verse. Adjectives like frilly, silly, polka-dotted, fizzy, and spunky are printed in color, and all the words will tickle you pink!

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, Childrens, Writing, Teaching, Humor, 1st Grade

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Karelle Royal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book to use when teaching about adjectives.
Funny and silly scenarios that will have students LOL.
Great illustrations & lots of rhyming words.
Teaches students how to use adjectives to describe various nouns.
Art: I did a mystery bag activity w/the students and they drew a picture of the item and used adjectives to describe the size, shape, color & texture of the object. The class had to guess what the mystery item was based on each group's description & drawing.

[Geyz-G1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned about synonyms from this book. I love the pictures in this book, especially the picture of an ice-cream store. I think of synonyms as different ice-cream. When my Mom takes me to an ice-cream shop, I always want to try many kinds of ice-cream, because it is more fun than just one kind. Synonyms can make sentences more fun. I will try to remember and use synonyms.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

We really enjoy Brian P. Cleary's books. He makes learning fun, and this is a silly and humorous rhyming book about adjectives. His books really entertain children while teaching them basic concepts; our girls really like them. The illustrations by Jenya Prosmitsky are cartoony and cute, too - we love the cats.

We've read several of the books in the Words are CATegorical series and we've really enjoyed them. We will certainly look for more books by this author/illustrator team at our local library.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am using this book to reteach adjectives to my class. It has cute illustrations and lots of adjectives.

[Murlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to talk about adjectives. Lots of pictures and very funny.

[crow ♡]

guys. guys the audiobook version is so good 😍😍 the narrator was a bit too gay for my liking but ig that can be overlooked 😕🙄 /j I LOVE YOU CLAY AHABAHSV /p

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute concept, wonderful illustrations. This book limits adjectives to descriptions, such as colors and size. It does a great job with this. I was hoping to find some more varied adjectives, including demonstrative and possessive adjectives as well, so I could get more use of the book in an intermediate grade classroom. For the primary grades it would be a wonderful resource. Most children will be entertained while reinforcing grammar. That's a good thing. Additional note: Now that I teach First grade, and no long Fourth, I think this book is probably a bit too frenetic or advanced for many First graders. The book has a lot of energy. I think young writers, ages 7 to 9, or so, might find this inspiring and entertaining.

[em - dekota :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

5.0

here's my genuine review. i picked this up as a joke. it was fine. i mainly see teachers in the reviews of this book (i expected no less), so here is a review for you. i picked this up as a joke. it was fine. teachers, your students will enjoy this and I'd recommend it.



disclaimer: THE REST OF THIS REVIEW IS SATIRE. teachers, please don't read this part. this part is not for you.

originally, i picked this up as a quick read while browsing the library. to my surprise, this book was incredible. hairy, scary, ordinary is a story that explores the use of adjectives. not only would i recommend this to fans of simple, yet educational books, but i'd also recommend this to fans of classic literature, enemies to lovers, and diary entries. have a lovely rest of your day, folks.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very fun book on adjectives! Students can begin to make predictions as to what the next adjective will be in this hilarious and colorful book. I love the way the author makes grammar fun! This book could easily be used to encourage students to make their writing "juicy." In my 1st grade class, adjectives were something the students were having a hard time with. This would make for a great activating strategy in showing students how FUN adjectives can be. Students could get in small groups (teams), then could go around and describe random objects in the classroom! The first team to describe 7 objects using at least 3 adjectives would win!

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fun way to learn about adjectives. It's defined at the beginning then the rhyming text gives adjectives and there is a goofy picture to match. Each adjective is a different color (other than black) so it stands out and helps the child understand that it is the adjective.

The last two pages asks the child to find their own example of an adjective. All my boys (even the 3-yr-old) were able to find multiple examples. I guess the book worked!

We've read several books in this series and have really enjoyed them. We'll be getting more soon.

[Auttumn C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, funny, funny! This book made all of my students laugh but it also had an important lesson on adjectives! if you want a book that makes your students laugh but also makes grammar fun this is the book for you! A lesson that could be incorporated is have different objects from around the classroom or from your house for the students to describe with their 5 senses! The students can write a sentence about the object with adjectives or just make a list.

[Kathryn Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book! It is a very easy read and very cute. It is very straight to the point and comprehendable. The words deoict the images exactly. I wish it would go a little more into detail about the tyes of adjectives. Other that than htat the book was wonderful and I would use when I was working with students and adjectives.

[Sue Pak · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a cute book to focus on adjectives.
I would recommend this for grades K-2nd. This book consists of a lot of examples of adjectives. Kids will find it easy to understand.

[Kayla Hawkins]

(My Choice)
Summary: This book teaches about adjectives. The book follows different cats throughout the story as examples of adjectives are given and the term is described. When reading the book, the story flows very smoothly and rhythmically as well.

Evaluation: I love this book! It was such a fun read and kids would enjoy this book a lot as well. I also like that there are other books in the series that are about other topics, such as: adverbs, homonyms and homophones, pronouns, nouns, synonyms, antonyms, verbs, and prepositions.

Teaching Idea: I would use this book to introduce an adjectives lesson. It would be a great way to get students excited about what they are about to learn.

[Victoria Bottoms · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE this book because it teaches readers what adjectives do. It gives so many examples of adjectives during the story. Although there is not really a plot in the story. I think that this book would be so beneficial to read. It could be used to provide an introduction to adjectives, and then could also be used to remind about the importance of adjectives every year. I think that this would be a great hook to an adjectives lesson, because it is a fun book!! I wish I would have had it when I reviewed adjectives in my fourth grade placement.

[Alyssa Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grammar, Rhyming, Parts of Speech

This story goes along describing things seen on a daily basis to show the readers what an adjective is and how we are supposed to use it. It shows how an adjective is used to describe things while using rhyme.

This book can be used in a lesson using TEK: ELA .3.11.D.iv. This TEK sates, "The student is expected to edit drafts using standard English conventions, including: adjectives, including their comparative and superlative forms." By showing the students with examples what an adjective is, they can implement it in their own writing.

[Meagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an entertaining look at adjectives, covering a wide range of categories (size, color, texture, character, emotions, etc.). I appreciated that the adjectives were written in color to distinguish them from the rest of a sentence. I didn't like how randomly they were presented. (For example, one page says: "Hilly, chilly, fast, and fun, undercooked and overdone." The top of the page has animals sledding, while on the bottom of the page they are cooking. The book felt chaotic.)

[Juliette · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Little brother had this book so I decided to read it. The book teaches kids what are adjectives in a really fun way making learning fun for the young kids. I would recommend it for little kids age 3-7, they will like the drawings and all the little creatures and at the same time, they will learn about adjectives.

[Congetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this book is geared towards 1st to 5th graders, there were some adjectives that my 6th grade son hadn’t heard before. Plus it was a good read aloud/tongue twister for him. It required more attention to reading aloud than expected.

[Ailish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would target this book potentially towards Year 2, reading this to a class prior to an English lesson. The book enables children to learn about adjectives. The author explains what adjectives are through visuals.

The playful rhymes are used to highlight the key words.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Teaching Book!

This is a fantastic way to teach adjectives in a classroom! I love how the author uses the words to rhyme and blend to where they flow and makes kids giggle and want to listen. It becomes engaging for them!

[Indie Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book for explaining adjectives. It has an adjective and matches it with a visual of the adjective. This would be a good guide for explaining and demonstrating how to use adjectives to describe.

[Miki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute way to teach adjectives to young children.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

These word books are fabulous at describing types of words. The rhymes are good and frequently funny. I read five of them to Alena today. She enjoyed them too.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adjective: "They describe...they tell us things are orange or green, hot or cold, or in-between."

[Kissiki Job · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

The book is self explanatory
It is easy and fun. To read my class loves it. I will be purchasing the others

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was really funny!

[Yvonne O'Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The girls loved the rhymes and the pictures and were actively participating! A winner to me.

[Vo Khon · Rating 5 out of 5]

almost 60 new adjective for me to describe things in the real life. Amazing book with vivid illustrated.

[Tanyana Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

Innovative rhyming and pictures. A great way to teach and to learn. My children definitely prefer these over boring workbooks.