If You Were a Noun

Word Fun

by Michael Dahl, Sara Jean Gray (Illustrator)

Provides an introduction to nouns and proper nouns. Includes an activity.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Language, 2nd Grade

24 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Michael Dahl is the author of over 200 books for children and young adults, including the acclaimed Finnegan Zwake mystery series and The Library of Doom. His works have earned Edgar and Anthony Award nominations and national design honors. As Editorial Director at Stone Arch Books, he champions engaging, award-winning stories that inspire young readers everywhere.

He also writes under aliases Chris Carey, Rick Thomas, and Mark Ziegler.

Reviews

[LaDonna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 2.75: rounding counts
⭐️⭐️💫

Conceptually, I am all for this book. I always welcome new ways of teaching young children, especially without them knowing it. (You know...like slipping diced spinach into the spaghetti sauce). I think Michael Dahl uses the right imagery—space travel—to introduce nouns. However, as I was reading it, I found it a little overwhelming when shared with young or new readers. There is a lot of info to take in —proper nouns; singular versus plural nouns; irregular nouns that change their respective spelling when they become plural. (That’s just a short list of the topics). Although I am on the fence about this book, I read it to 11 kids who were enthralled by it.

What do I know?

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

"If You Were a Noun" written by Michael Dahl and illustrated by Sara Gray is a concept book that describes what a noun is while using examples in space. This is a concept book that is very unique compared to ones that I have read before. The book does a really good job of teaching about nouns, while still giving really interesting examples. Each page gives a description of different things students should know about nouns, then gives an example that is related to space to give the students a better understanding. The book didn't just give the basics of what a noun is but broke it down even further to discuss proper nouns, plural nouns, etc. The text on each page is written in very fun ways winding around in curves, using different fonts and colors, and capitalization. The illustrations are very exciting and really bring the examples of nouns to life. This really brings the story together and would help make it more enjoyable for children.
I think that this book would be good for older elementary students, maybe third grade and older. I think it would be really difficult to use this with younger children because there is a lot of information about nouns in one book and they may be overwhelmed. I think this book would need to be read several times in order for students to get a better understanding of nouns, but it would be helpful to learn just a little about nouns if not. This book would be good to keep in a classroom so that students can go back to it and use it for reference if they need more help on nouns. Overall, I think it did a good job of explaining nouns as long as it is used for the right age group and in the right way.

[Alexandra Stoencheva · Rating 3 out of 5]

If You Were a Noun is a picture book that was very different from any I have ever read. This book teaches what a noun is while still having an interesting book to look at. Each page has a more formal definition of a noun and then a fun example. This book is also very interesting because of the way the text is put on each page. It is not just typed in straight lines in the center of the page. Its spread across the page going crooked, diagonal, up and down, and in a wave. It is fun and draws your attention to the book.

The illustrations are done by Sara Gray, who does a great job at portraying what the story is talking about. It must be hard to draw pictures about nouns but she still made the illustrations interesting. She uses many different colors and shapes. She also does a great job at making sure that all the illustrations are completely different from each other. She uses lots of lines in her photos that really help show the shape of the different illustrations. I would recommend this book to any age that is learning about nouns.

[Shelby King · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really excited to read this book. I had a lot of trouble with parts of speech when I was a child. I thought that this book did a really good job of breaking down what a noun is. It gave the definition of a noun several times, discussed proper nouns, plural nouns, and abnormal singular and plural nouns. My problem with this book is that it might be too much information for students to break down in one sitting. It also was a little bit drab in the information presented. I probably wouldn't choose to read this book during story time, because I don't think children (especially younger children) would be able to keep interest. I do think the fun and silly space illustrations helped to make the book fun and interesting. I would want to use this book more than once and possibly break down reading it in about a weeks long period. Parts of speech can be very confusing and I would be concerned about throwing too much information at my students at once

[Kristiana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. It doesn’t help with understanding the concept. And it gets confusing at times.

[Maria Mascalco · Rating 3 out of 5]

If You Were a Noun by Michael Dahl is an interesting book that taught students about nouns. Although I feel some students could get a lot out of the book, I feel that they way it is written makes it feel like definitions are just thrown into the book. For example, it says, "a noun that is more than one thing is a plural noun." I understand that it is good to teach students definitions, I feel that there is a better way to teach them about plural nouns than jus throwing in the definition. I did however like the examples included in the book. They were all related to the outer space theme which made the book easier to understand.

The illustrations were a beautiful addition that would allow children to feel like they are transported to space. The characters were simply drawn which helps to keep the drawings from distracting from the words. They worked to enhance the words on the page. Overall, making this book good to read to children.

[Mikaela Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book while preparing a literacy center for a science camp. I really enjoyed that while this appeared to be a basic picture book, it quickly launched into paragraphs and specific details about plural, proper, and changing (mice/mouse) nouns. The book was very specific and utilized brightly colored words which matched images to identify nouns so as emergent readers were following along, they were able to link these words (build sight recognition) along with the help of images and more advanced readers had the rich structure of detailed examples in the paragraphs. The author also provided a circular ending that launches into an activity to allow readers to further explore what is a noun. I will take this strategy in helping to teach writers because it shows that your work can be directly, vaguely, or not at all linked to other activities and exploration.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book would be a good introduction for an English lesson. If though I feel that it was somewhat boring, I think elementary school students in 2nd or 3rd grade would enjoy this. It does a great job explaining the definition and uses of nouns in plain language that young students could understand. There is a space theme throughout the book it could also be used in a science lesson. At the end of the story, there is an idea for a game involving the use of nouns that you could play with your class. I would recommend this book to 2nd and 3rd grade students, but I believe that 4th and 5th graders would find this boring. The illustrations are very bright, colorful, and do a great job explaining the central theme.

[Kaytlyn Rosynek · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book would be a great way to introduce nouns in an elementary classroom. I thought the use of bold, large font to show which words in the sentence were the nouns was a unique idea. The author explains what each type of noun is and gives examples of each. He explains what a plural, singular, collective and proper noun are. The illustrations were a key part in the picture book as well. I thought the illustrator helped to solidify what each pages meaning was.

[L.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

My brand new 4-year-old understands common & proper, capitalization basics, singular & plural, and how to add “s” to make words plural—after just a few read throughs this week. Concepts above her head seamlessly continue the storyline because of how the book is written.

I’m sure it could be improved upon, but I haven’t seen any other series like this that works for even young children! Hats off to Dahl for books on grammar and developmental milestones—we’ll keep reading! 🙌🏼

[Camila · Rating 3 out of 5]

The graphics in this book are awesome! It's set in outer space which students love. It talks about all the outer space nouns that you could be. I was going to use this book to introduced nouns to my first graders but decided not to after reading it myself. It's a little boring and it introduces every form of a noun all at once which I thought would be confusing for the students.

[Breana Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. It teaches all the different kinds of nouns. You can do lessons on the nouns, and use this as a mentor text. There is a game at the end for class to guess what noun each person is thinking. There is also a glossary at the back. You can also do a lesson on space for science with the book.

[Kandice Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book for a classroom. It teaches what a noun is by using different objects and people that relate to space. It is a great teaching source for children. They will enjoy the colorful and animated pictures while learning about nouns. This would be a great book to read when teaching nouns. It is full of examples and pictures that go along with the words.

[Alex Deats · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has fun pictures. The nouns on the page are big and easily identifiable. It makes it easy to explain the function of a noun. The aliens in the middle of the book made me want to keep reading. I think they will keep the children's attention. Learning nouns can be dull but this makes learning seem fun. I also like the diversity between the astronauts.

[Armanda Campbell]

This is a great book that will teach students about what nouns are. Not only does the author do a great jod explaining, she also gives great examples of nouns to beter help the children understand. The illustrations in this book are amazing and definitely add to the creativity of teh story.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

This fun filled book of nouns would be great for teaching students what a noun is and how they are used. This would be a perfect introducing students to nouns and pronouns. It’s filled with several examples of different nouns that students can learn from.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for a books about grammer. They actually diagram in these books but not too much. And they try to make the examples interesting. Overall not bad. Grades 2+

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction of nouns!

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

very cute way to introduce parts of speech at ANY grade level!

[Jeimy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute, colorful book to introduce K through second graders to nouns. Unfortunately, it's too simplistic for me to use with my six graders.

[Gloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, fast read that can be used to introduce or reinforce basic grammar concepts. It could also be used as an introductory activity, to have students write their own "If I Were a Noun" statements.

[Emily Sims]

This is the perfect book to introduce your students to what a noun is and how to find it in a sentence. The book uses objects and titles of things related to space to explain the different types of nouns such as singular, proper, and plural. Students will love this book because the pictures are eccentric and the words are not written in a straight line. Children will enjoy following along and seeing all of the space paraphernalia. This book can be read to the class before a lesson on nouns. The students can name different types of nouns as they learn through the book.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an energetic little book designed to teach children about the different types of nouns. The acrylic illustration by Sara Gray, with animals dressed up like astronauts, are sure to engage even readers who are too young for the content. The first couple of pages give instructions written sideways on the page for how to look for a noun, which gives more visual interest. The nouns are categorized as person, place, thing, singular nouns, and plural nouns, all with an outer space theme. For example we learn that the word "astronaut" is a noun, but if you are discussing a particular astronaut, such as "Neil Armstrong" that noun is called a proper noun and capitalization must be used. The last two pages provide directions for a noun guessing game and library and web resources for further reading. I would recommend this book for K-2. Kindergartners won't know what a noun is, but they will love the story and a grammatical seed will be planted in their brains!