Book Review: Spelling Works by Jim Halverson

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, free of charge, from the author,via Direct Contact PR, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it 

Back to school means your younger kids will be starting spelling (like Miss Grace), learning harder vocabulary words and hitting the grammar books!

Why is Spelling so important?

“Knowing how to spell is crucial in professional communications, Halverson says. “It can be very awkward when your smartphone “corrects” the simple things you are trying to say and turns them into something funny, lewd, or downright raunchy.

“People may accept a few improperly spelled words in email that carries the words ‘Sent from my iPhone’, but if they catch errors repeatedly, it can have a serious effect on professional performance and may even be career threatening”. 

Synopsis: Spelling Works is a simple-to-use book for learning spelling rules and how to spot your own errors. Halverson developed the techniques over decades of teaching students how to spell. He created a series of exercises that are each part of an ongoing story. The end of each story unit reviews the key concept with games and a “spelling maze.” 

Spelling Works covers root words, prefixes, suffixes, the doubling rule for one-syllable words, the final silent E-rule, the final Y-rule, apostrophes in contractions, plurals and singular possessives, homophone demons, troublesome endings, how to divide words into syllables, stress and the schwa sound, and stingers.  The presentation of spelling concepts is done with amusing teasers, engaging questions, step-by-step explanations and continual review.  They show that spelling is part of a larger language picture, there are interesting sidelights about word origins and the history of language.

Review: As the 'spell checker' at my department, there have been many times when I wished I could get a nickel for every word I had to spell or sentence I had to check! Those times are always when I thanked the nuns in my early schooling for being so STRICT and strident when it came to learning spelling and grammar! So it is sort of a pet peeve with me, and one I know that auto-correct can NOT deal with correctly!

This book is not only for kids, but for adults to brush up on spelling and grammar that they may have missed out on in school! The book is aimed at kids in Grades 5 and up, and I would say that advanced 4th graders may be able to use it as well. The book I reviewed is actually the second edition- it has been modernized, and I would say the illustrations aimed at a slightly older crowd of kids than the first edition.  The books has great examples, the lessons are simple and aimed to keep kids interested. Check out this one about the missing E above. 

Halverson notes exceptions to rules and gives some info behind the reason why they are different, which helps to make this book an EXCELLENT resource for teachers and home schooling parents alike! I highly recommend it, so that you can create your own 'spell checker' child!

About the Author: Jim Halverson grew up in Indianapolis, graduated from Brown University, and lived in Paris.  After teaching in Baltimore, he and his wife Anita moved to New York where he taught at Saint Ann’s, a private non-sectarian school, for over thirty years and also wrote six books for Scholastic, Inc.  He is now retired, and he and Anita split their time between New York and Maine.