This book is for people who experience heartbreak over love notes with subject-verb disagreements...for anyone who's ever considered hanging up the phone on people who pepper their speech with such gems as "irregardless," "expresso," or "disorientated"...and for the earnest souls who wonder if it's "Woe is Me," or "Woe is I," or even "Woe am I." 
Martha Brockenbrough's Things That Make Us (Sic) is a laugh-out-loud guide to grammar and language, a snarkier American answer to Lynn Truss's runaway success, Eats, Shoots &amp; Leaves. Brockenbrough is the founder of National Grammar Day and SPOGG -- the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar -- and as serious as she is about proper usage, her voice is funny, irreverent, and never condescending. Things That Make Us (Sic) addresses common language stumbling stones such as evil twins, clichés, jargon, and flab, and offers all the spelling tips, hints, and rules that are fit to print. It's also hugely entertaining, with letters to high-profile language abusers, including David Hasselhoff, George W. Bush, and Canada's Maple Leafs [sic], as well as a letter to --and a reply from -- Her Majesty, the Queen of England. 
Brockenbrough has written a unique compendium combining letters, pop culture references, handy cheat sheets, rants, and historical references that is as helpful as it is hilarious.

Things That Make Us (Sic): The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar Takes on Madison Avenue, Hollywood, the White House, and the World

Humor & Entertainment

Brockenbrough, Martha

Humor

St.Martin's Press

An ALA Notable Book for Children 
Winner of the Woodson Award\nHe challenged the Supreme Court on his right to be called citizen—and won\nWhen American-born Wong Kim Ark returns home to San Francisco after a visit to China, he’s stopped and told he cannot enter: he isn’t American. What happens next would forever change the national conversation on who is and isn’t American. After being imprisoned on a ship for months, Wong Kim Ark takes his case to the Supreme Court and argues any person born in America is an American citizen.\nI am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story is an important picture book that introduces young readers to the young man who challenged the Supreme Court for his right to be an American citizen and won, confirming birthright citizenship for all Americans.\nFrom School Library Journal\nK-Gr 4-Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco in 1873 and knew he was an American. He had never lived anywhere else. Then the Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882, hindering immigration, job opportunities, and eventual citizenship for Chinese people in the United States. Violence toward Chinese people became even more commonplace, and Ark's parents went back to China. After visiting his family in China, Ark was detained from entering the country, despite being born in America. He won the lawsuit in San Francisco to be freed, but this did not apply to the U.S. government, so he brought the case to the Supreme Court. His victory guaranteed citizenship to all of those born in the U.S. This detailed picture book biography introduces readers to a historical figure who changed birthright citizenship laws. The digitally rendered artwork fills each spread, and its detailed imagery gives insight into life in San Francisco's Chinatown in the late 1880s and early 1900s. Endpapers include an 1885 neighborhood map of Chinatown, outlining Chinese-occupied, white-occupied, and vacant areas, to give a clearer picture of the city's population. Back matter features photos and a time line starting with 1849, when the first large group of Chinese immigrants began to settle in the U.S., to the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act. VERDICT An important picture book biography to augment classroom conversations about immigration and citizenship.-Kristyn Dorfman, Friends Academy, Locust Valley, NYα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story

Children's Books

Lin, Grace

Biographies

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy lives in the Museum, where she polishes her giant tooth collection and remembers the good old days. But when a little girl with a loose tooth walks through with her class, the D.T.F. knows she wants it, wants it, WANTS it! The thing is, the world has changed quite a lot since the D.T.F. was out and about -- there are doorknobs, slobbering dogs, and school buses to worry about now. Not to mention a mysterious Tooth Fairy rival who might just sweep in and ruin everything! Here is a story about loose teeth, heart's desires and -- in the end -- friendship, that is both laugh-out-loud funny and unexpectedly touching. This is the T-Rex of tooth fairy books. (Or maybe the most magical tooth fairy of dinosaur books?) Read it and teethe.

The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy

Animals

Arthur A. Levine Books

This is not that story. Jerome Hancock is Heidi Devine's guardian angel. Sort of. He's more of an angel trainee, in heaven's soul-rehabilitation program for wayward teens. And he's just about to get kicked out for having too many absences and for violating too many of the Ten Commandments for the Dead. Heidi, meanwhile, is a high school junior who dreams of being an artist, but has been drafted onto her basketball team because she's taller than many a grown man. For as long as she can remember, she's heard a voice in her head - one that sings Lynyrd Skynyrd, offers up bad advice, and yet is company during those hours she feels most alone. When the unthinkable happens, these two lost souls must figure out where they went wrong and whether they can make things right before Heidi's time is up and her soul is lost forever. Martha Brockenbrough's debut novel is hilarious, heartbreaking, and hopeful, with a sense of humor that's wicked as hell, and writing that's just heavenly.

Devine Intervention

Teen & Young Adult

Literature & Fiction

Not since THE BOOK THIEF has the character of Death played such an original and affecting part in a book for young people. Flora and Henry were born a few blocks from each other, innocent of the forces that might keep a white boy and an African American girl apart; years later they meet again and their mutual love of music sparks an even more powerful connection. But what Flora and Henry don't know is that they are pawns in a game played by the eternal adversaries Love and Death, here brilliantly reimagined as two extremely sympathetic and fascinating characters. Can their hearts and their wills overcome not only their earthly circumstances, but forces that have battled throughout history? In the rainy Seattle of the 1920's, romance blooms among the jazz clubs, the mansions of the wealthy, and the shanty towns of the poor. But what is more powerful: love? Or death?

The Game of Love and Death

Science Fiction & Fantasy

In a series of letters, a young girl writes to Santa to ask about the North Pole, Mrs. Claus, and of course, Christmas goodies. Year after year, Santa writes back, and a heartwarming relationship develops, until one year, the girl writes to her mother instead: Mom, are you Santa? Her mother responds to say that no, she is not Santa. Because Santa is bigger than any one person -- we bring him out through kindness to one another and the power of imagination. This transformative tale spins a universal childhood experience into a story about love, giving, and the spirit of Christmas.

Love, Santa

Holidays & Celebrations

The first day of school is right around the corner! And everything is bigger for Bigfoot -- especially back to school problems like getting a haircut, trying on new clothes, and finding new shoes that fit! Told from a giant (and very hairy) point of view, Back to School with Bigfoot deftly tackles the worries kids face as that first day of school draws closer, and ends on a colossal high note!

Back to School with Bigfoot

BERGER, SAMANTHA

Flora and Henry were born a few blocks from each other, innocent of the forces that might keep a white boy and an African American girl apart; years later they meet again and their mutual love of music sparks an even more powerful connection. But what Flora and Henry don't know is that they are pawns in a game played by the eternal adversaries Love and Death, here brilliantly reimagined as two extremely sympathetic and fascinating characters. Can their hearts and their wills overcome not only their earthly circumstances, but forces that have battled throughout history? In the rainy Seattle of the 1920's, romance blooms among the jazz clubs, the mansions of the wealthy, and the shanty towns of the poor. But what is more powerful: love? Or death?

Scholastic. Inc.

The Game Of Love And Death (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

Historical Fiction

Turtleback Books

Martha Brockenbrough's It Could Happen to You is a delightfully funny diary of the author's own pregnancy through the first year of her daughter's life. It is the perfect antidote to all of the patronizing, horribly dull pregnancy books, which are long on advice and short on laughs.It Could Happen to You began as a column Brockenbrough wrote for the Microsoft Network while she was pregnant. During its tenure on MSN, it was the most widely read column about pregnancy and motherhood on the Internet. It's easy to see why. Brockenbrough's amusing approach to pregnancy and motherhood will strike a chord with experienced moms and the newly pregnant alike, who may wonder, as the author did, "Do I really have to wear maternity clothes'"Throughout the book, Brockenbrough shares her joys and her fears, and asks the questions every new mom wants to know, such as, "Why do old ladies keep telling me my baby is cold'" and shares the realization that "When you're a mother, your guilt light goes off the second you start doing something for you, instead of something for your child." A few not-to-be-missed chapters written by her husband, Adam, such as "A Guy's Guide to Baby Holding," provide a comical male perspective on the whole experience.Refreshingly honest and funny, It Could Happen to You is just right for bolstering the most important tool a new parent has-a sense of humor.

It Could Happen To You: Diary Of A Pregnancy and Beyond

Andrews McMeel Publishing

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brockenbrough, Martha. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Brockenbrough, Martha

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brockenbrough, Martha. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Things That Make Us (Sic): The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar Takes on Madison Avenue, Hollywood, the White House, and the World

I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story

The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy

Devine Intervention

The Game of Love and Death

Love, Santa

Back to School with Bigfoot

The Game of Love and Death

The Game Of Love And Death (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

It Could Happen To You: Diary Of A Pregnancy and Beyond