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SHARED By: Katherine Grier, Librarian at York Avenue Preschool

If you’ve never read any of Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s books (e.g., “Little Pea,” “Spoon,” “Chopsticks,” “Yes Day, It’s Not Fair”), you are missing out on some truly delightful stories and characters. As in most of Ms. Rosenthal’s books, the story in “Exclamation Mark” is a straightforward and simple one with a powerful message presented in a highly entertaining way. The title character of the book is tired of standing out (as exclamation marks are apt to do). He tries to bend and twist to be more like the periods, but he just can not do it. Confused and deflated, he thinks about running away, but then along comes a different punctuation mark (Question Mark) that bombards Exclamation Mark with questions.

Who are you?
What grade are you in?
What’s your favorite color?
Do you like frogs?
What’s your favorite ice cream?
When’s your birthday?
Know any good jokes?
Do you wanna race to the corner?”

Confronted with these and many more questions young children typically ask their peers, Exclamation Mark gets a little overwhelmed. He yells, “STOP!” And thanks to the fact that he is an Exclamation Mark, his one word makes quite an impact. In fact, Question Mark is so impressed he wants Exclamation Mark to do it again. Exclamation Mark isn’t sure he can, so he tries a simple “HI!” It feels good and he soon finds he has other things that he wants to say with his exclamatory powers.

I loved everything about this book starting with its shape and bright yellow cover. I loved that the pages mimicked the lined paper that children use to practice writing. I loved the cute expressions on the faces of all of the punctuation. And, I especially loved that reading all of Question Mark’s queries and Exclamation Mark’s unleashed expressions aloud left me gasping for air and had my library class audiences laughing uproariously and begging me to read those pages again.