Don’t Dangle Your Participle

Are you looking for a fun way to teach a tricky topic like dangling participles? Don’t Dangle Your Participle by Vanita Oelschlager delivers laughs and educational value in a 42 page book designed to teach children ages 6-10.
The book opens with a rundown on what a participle is and a few examples which serve to explain the importance of correctly placing the participle.

The academic tone of the first two-page section made my children squirm a  little as they began to think that this book was going to be too much like a text book with a couple cute images thrown in to tease them.

Then we turned the page.

Beautiful, full-page illustrations popped with color, bringing to life some goofy sentences with participles placed all wrong. Even my youngest was catching on to the silliness.

Each goofy page was followed by a corrected sentence and an illustration to express the change.

The contrast was obvious and the problems were more quickly noticed as we progressed through the book.

Each participle is written in italics which helps the kids to spot them faster.

I thought this book was clever and educational. After their initial scare, my children were very pleasantly surprised that this book really was fun. Listening as they giggled and shouted out the correct sentences before I could flip the page, was all the confirmation I need that they were enjoying this unexpected lesson in grammar.

The website provides some neat ideas for using this book in a homeschool setting. I especially like this suggestion:

• Art classes could do their own ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ sentences

with participles.

I’m sure we’ll revisit the book in the future, both for reviewing the concept of dangling participles and for a hilarious moment together.

​I give this book five stars.

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Order your copy on Amazon or Barnes&Noble.Disclosure: I received a free copy of Don’t Dangle Your Participle from Vanita Books via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.