English in Blue & White: Lessons with Practice and Resources in Grammar, Composition and Literature

Description

Designed for middle school courses in English teaching a balance between grammar, composition and literature.

Chris Giles is the English Department Chair at Marymount of Santa Barbara. He has been teaching English to middle school students for 13 years and has a Master's degree in Middle School Education from Rosemont College. John Powell has taught at Episcopal Academy for the past twenty years and has an A.B. from Trinity College.

When you told me about Giles and Powell's in general terms, I expected to like it. I was not disappointed. As a streamlined explanation of English grammar's basic concepts and categories, English in Blue and White is exactly what is most needed and too often withheld from the middle-school students for whom it is primarily designed. It is accessible without being simplistic and thus also an excellent resource for older students playing catch-up in the field of grammar. I also admired the authors' incisive advice on the art of writing, an Elements of Style, in effect, for younger students. What I enjoyed the most, however, was their use of sample sentences of genuine literary merit, e.g., exemplifying adverbs with that great quip from Mark Twain: "I was glad to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know." All in all, a very sensible and attractive work in a field where textbooks with those attributes are in short supply. -- David Mulroy, Professor, Classics, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Author of The War Against Grammar