If You Were a Verb

Word Fun

by Michael Dahl

Excellent Book

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Writing, Nonfiction

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

[Paul]

the date you completed reading the book: 10-29-20
a star rating (1 to 5): 5
the date: 10-29-20
the genre: informational
appropriate grade range: K-2
a written book review:
A good resource for helping to teach about verbs. Nice pictures.

[L.A.]

I think the noun book was better, but this was also fun. Helping verbs and linking verbs are a bit young for my four-year-old, so we’ll revisit again later. Covering transitive and intransitive might have been good, but again, those are big words for the age 🤷🏼‍♀️

[May Kathryn]

Good teaching material

This is a fun and creative way of teaching children the use of verbs and other particles in creating a sentence. I love that the narration is engaging enough for me--and hopefully children--to listen to. I definitely recommend this one.

[Jessica]

For a book about verbs, it was ok. Yes, there were action verbs. The illustrations made it easy to see.

Then there helping verbs. I don't feel it showed how it helped the verb. They should have highlighted the verb in one color and then showed the helping verb. They gave the 23 member list.

Then they showed the linking verbs, the state of being verbs.

They also showed verbs as time passed- past, prestent and future.

I would read this book when I studied grammar during writer's workshop.

[Melba Deoleo]

This a book that defines the part of speech that we all know as a verb, it not only tells us what a verb is, but it also gives the reader plenty of examples of what a verb does or can do. It has vivid illustrations that make the reader see just how much fun a verb can make a sentence have.The examples of verbs are written in capital letters and in a different color than the rest of the text. The book also talks about all the different types of verbs like helping verbs, past, present, future verbs and linking verbs. At the end of the book you will find an activity to help the reader further understand verbs. This is a book that I would definitely use in my classroom as it makes it very easy for kids to understand what a verb is. I would read the book to my class and then have a discussion about verbs where I would let my students come up with sentences that contain verbs. WE would also do the activity that comes at the end of the book, there are simply many things that this book can lead to, but the main thing is giving the students a clear picture of what a verb is and does.

[Andrew Perry]

This book would be a great to read as an introduction to a lesson on verbs. The book provides great definitions of both helping and linking verbs. The book also covers past, present, and future verb tense.

[Latifah Williams]

This is a great book for all things verb! It focuses on verb tenses, and types of verbs (helping, action, linking). This is a cute book and students want to read it because of engaging illustrations.

[Amanda]

This is a good book to read to your students when you are teaching them about verbs. It gives different verbs that are commmonly used and explain what a verb is in an easy to understand way. Think this is a really good book that would help students understand verbs.

[Armanda Campbell]

This is a great book that teaches about verbs. It describes where verbs are, it defines them and gives example of some verbs that we may use evryday. This book also names all 23 helping verbs so that the children can become familiar with those.

[E]

This fun informational defines what a verb is and how we use them. Throughout the book there are several examples of verbs that students can learn. As a lesson extension, I would have students write sentences using different verbs.

[Jennifer Park]

I really enjoyed this story. The illustrations were very colorful and reflected the story well. This story is good to use when introducing verbs. The story demonstrate ways to use verbs. It talks about if you were a verb and list many verbs, you would be.

[Brittany White]

I really like the concept of this book. I think it would be a great supplemental piece when teaching the parts of speech.

[Katelyn Warner]

* Brian Cleary-style of writing
* Kind of confusing, but might be worth the while in a unit on verbs
* Gives a wide variety of examples

[Sarah Ziskend]

Good for:
-teaching about verbs
-linking verbs
-tense
- subject verb agreement

[Betsy]

A fun way to reinforce all the different kinds of verbs. Interactive and includes a fun game at the end. Would be a fun read aloud.

[Katrina Kim]

Read to introduce verbs

Teaches:
-Verbs
* helping and linking verbs
* past, present, and future verb tense

Provides a wide variety of examples

[Heather]

Nice grammar book. Includes changing tenses, helping verbs and linking verbs.