!

A story about an exclamation mark is exactly what aspiring copy editors need on their shelves (as well as everyone else). With the plethora of exclamation marks in colloquial writing, it’s nice to see a book that makes the exclamation stand out in its proper form.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal sets up the problem right away:  He stood out from the very beginning. We follow ! as he travels through the pages of school notebook paper, illustrated with “ink and other exciting materials” by Tom Lichtenheld.

With as much proper grammar as this book includes, first and foremost this book is about the funny story of ! finding his place in the world. There’s also great vocabulary in it.