Miss Pell Would Never Misspell and Other Painless Tricks for Memorizing How to Spell and Use Wily Words (Adventures in Memory)
While each of the first three titles in Cleary’s Adventures in Memory series focuses on a subject area (geography, science, social studies), the fourth bolsters a skill needed in every area of the curriculum: spelling. A brief introduction explains the use of mnemonics, gives examples, and offers tips on how students can create devices to help them spell their own most troublesome words correctly. The main section of the book creates a dictionary of often-misspelled words (absence, rhythm, scissors, skiing, weird) with one on each page, accompanied by a mnemonic device and a colorful, cartoon-style illustration. Though closely related to the book’s topic, the concluding pages on word-usage problems and homophones seem tacked on to the main presentation. The book’s back matter includes a glossary and a short list of related books and websites. An upbeat, useful book for students hoping to overcome stumbling blocks in spelling. Grades 2-5. --Carolyn Phelan