Punctuation personified : or, pointing made easy

Young Robert can read, but his hurried, careless delivery makes nonsense of everything he says. A chance meeting with the kindly Mr. Stops introduces him to the power of pauses, and a cleverly misleading riddle shows how completely meaning can change when punctuation is missing or misplaced.

In lively verse, each mark becomes a character with a role to play: Comma takes brief pauses, Semicolon divides related thoughts, Colon prepares the listener for an explanation, and the Period brings a sentence firmly to an end. Question and exclamation marks, apostrophes, dashes, brackets, quotation marks, and many less familiar symbols join this cheerful cast, explaining their uses through memorable examples.

Designed for young readers and listeners, this charming instructional work turns grammar into a miniature parade of personalities. Its rhymes, counting pauses, visual descriptions, and playful illustrations make the rules easy to follow while encouraging careful reading aloud. It offers both amusement and a practical introduction to the marks that give written language its rhythm and sense.