[Excerpted from Kirkus Reviews, May 2000]

Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What Is an Adjective?

Brian P. Cleary.  Ill. by Jenya Promitsky.

The team that brought us A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink: What Is a Noun? (1999) turns its attention with equal felicity to defining adjectives in this antic, illustrated poem. Adjectives, readers discover, are words that "modify nouns in ways that help us/If someone's sincere, delighted, or jealous,/If jackets are herringbone, pinstriped, or plaid,/If babies are crabby, excited, or glad." Prosmitsky's amusing cartoons of silly humans and goofy cats illustrate every adjective that lurks in the text, thus reinforcing each meaning visually. Altogether, this entertaining lecture will go far to enliven and enlighten language classes as well as add to the readers' vocabulary. Neat, clever, commendable, and groovy. (Picture book. 7 - 10)

[Excerpt from Kirkus Reviews, Sept 1, 1999]

A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink: What Is a Noun?

A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink (32 pp.; $12.95; Sept. 7; 1-57505-402-7):  This book, subtitled, What is a Noun? appropriately abounds with persons, animals, places, and things, while rhymes drop broad hints about using nouns:  "Nouns can sometimes be quite proper like Brooklyn Bridge or Edward Hoper," but also "A pocket, button, sleeve, or cuff--A noun can simply be your stuff."  Cleary leaves explanations of when and why some nouns are capitalized to the textbooks.  Prosmitsky's funny illustrations of tubby cats link some disparate nouns and make them memorable, while a picaresque feline scene on a final two-page spread allows readers to pick out nouns on their own.  (Picture book, 7-9)