Just as the use of commas was hilariously demystified in "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!," now Lynne Truss and Bonnie Timmons put their talents together to do the same for apostrophes. Everyone needs to know where to put an apostrophe to make a word plural or possessive (Are those sticky things your brotheras or your brothers?) and leaving one out of a contraction can give someone the completely wrong impression (Were here to help you).

Full of silly scenes that show how apostrophes make a difference, too, this is another picture book that will elicit bales of laughter and better punctuation from all who read it.

For the millions of girls--and the women they grow into--who are mad about horses, who live to ride, who spend more time in stables than stores, who know the difference between a hock and the fetlock, comes a sweet, charming, wise, obsessive celebration of the bond between woman and horse. Written and illustrated by Bonnie Timmons, the award-winning artist whose signature squiggly style was seen every week on NBC's hit show "Caroline in the City" and is featured in places ranging from "The New York Times" to "Fortune 500" advertising campaigns, "Hold Your Horses" is 144 full-color pages of irresistible pleasure and unexpected horse sense.
It starts with First Love, moving quickly to Lessons, including the gallop: a gait so fast your worries can't keep up, and jumping: just throw your heart over first, and, of course, falling-otherwise known as an unscheduled dismount. There are tips on Buying One of These Things, plus the truth about Care and Feeding. (The trick here is knowing how much your horse weighs. Easy, really: 1. Weigh yourself. 2. Weigh yourself holding the horse. 3. Subtract 1 from 2.) And Horsekeeping Truths: A horse knows what you know. He also knows what you don't know. Written out of a lifelong love, "Hold Your Horses" gets to the heart of the passion that horses inspire. Every horsewoman will see herself in its pages.

A giant kids' playground certainly sounds like fun, but you might want to watch out in the giant kid's playground; he has a tendency to step on people. A sign stating, 'we're here to help', would definitely disappoint the customers if the apostrophe were removed. Lynne Truss and Bonnie Timmons once again illustrate the hilarious confusion that punctuation can cause. Having dealt with the comma in "Eats, Shoots & Leaves for Children", here they take on the apostrophe using lively, subversive pictures from one of America's leading illustrators and show how much chaos can ensue from one tiny squiggle.