Fantastic! Wow! and Unreal!: A Book About Interjections and Conjunctions (Heller, Ruth, Ruth Heller World of Language.) (original 1998; edition 2000)

Ruth Heller explains interjections and conjunctions through a story her vibrant illustrations tell. I think that since the focus is more on the illustrations than the grammar lesson at hand, many kids will pay more attention and end up learning a lot. The text itself explains what interjections and conjunctions are, how they are used, and why they are important. The book begins by setting a clear grammatical focus and at the end of the book, there is a two page spread that organizes the different types of conjunctions (coordinating, subordinating, correlative, conjunctive, pronouns as conjunctions, compound conjunctions).
"Each kind of conjunction behaves just like glue, connecting words and groups of words too."

eamill | Apr 2, 2010 |

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This is a good book for young children and is a good resource to use when teaching about grammar. It is a good read aloud to use before starting a unit on identifying interjections and conjunctions and the way they work in sentences. It will be a good read to keep the children's attention even though it is not a super fun topic in grammar! You could read this book and then ask the class what typed of words they saw often. Then you could provide a name and definition for those words, (interjections and conjunctions.) They could be assigned to write their own short novel using those types of words and draw pictures to go along with it. (

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jennabushong | Apr 25, 2016 |

I really enjoyed reading this book and believe it serves as an outstanding educational tool for young students learning about aspects of reading and writing. Learning about interjections and conjunctions is fun with the amazing illustrations the book has to offer and the information-packed text is brought to life by interesting yet humorous scenarios created by the author. The text is a simple yet clever read and will leave students with a lasting message regarding the use of conjunctions and interjections.Young students especially will love the rhyming scheme that contributes to the catchy essence of the book. (

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ajohns75 | Mar 5, 2015 |

This is one in a series of books by Ruth Heller dealing with the mine-field in the English language known as grammar. As the title says, this book is about interjections and conjunctions. It is a book that needs to be slowly worked through and read a number of times inconjunction with explicit teaching of these particuluar features of the English language. It is certainly a marvelous resource for all middle primary teachers.
Review by: Fiona

Scopuslrc | Nov 21, 2011 |

This is a good book to use with students who are learning all about conjunctions and interjections. The book is filled with full page pictures that explain conjunctions and even give many examples of some. The book is very appealing to young readers because of all the colors and pictures but the content on each page is amazing. The book really shows how conjunctions work and some examples of them too.

This website has some more information about the book and even has a link for purchases:

http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9780698118751-0 (

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alprince | Apr 14, 2010 |

eamill | Apr 2, 2010 |

Only available on paperback and hardcover.

Standard 4: Applying English Language Conventions
Overarching Idea: Students apply the conventions of standard English in oral, written and visual communication.
Guiding Question: How do we use the English language appropriately to speak and write?
Component Statements:
4.1 Students use knowledge of their language and culture to improve competency in English.
4.2 Students speak and write using standard language structures and diction appropriate to audience and task.
4.3 Students use standard English for composing and revising written text. (

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