You're Saying It Wrong - Book Review

We love books, and we love words. When you put those two together you get some people who are excited to review books like You're Saying It Wrong by Ross Petras and Kathryn Petras.

As soon as the package arrive, my son begged to open it. He shouted "Hooray!' when he saw what it was. I didn't see the book again for a few days, but I did get many reports on a lot of the words included!

When I finally got to look at the book, my husband wanted to look it over. He says this is a very interesting book too! The first thing I noticed in the book are the dark blue pages sprinkled throughout. These are pronunciation guides with a list that fits the topic, such as "How to Sound Like You're From Across the Pond" which lists "Eighteen British Names and Their Unexpected Pronunciations." Other lists are about composers, brands, gourmet foods, places, and more...all commonly mispronounced.

The rest of the book contains 150 words in alphabetical order, one per page. The word is spelled, then the pronunciation is shown with the definition. The rest of the page explains more about the word and often gives a history of it. When we studied North America, my kids let me know that I was pronouncing the Mexican state of Oaxaca wrong, because they learned the correct way in this book!

We were surprised to find out Oregon is frequently mispronounced and included in the book, but glad to know we were pronouncing it correctly. My kids most favorite page is for Dr. Seuss. Not many people realize they pronounce this wrong! We were sad to see that Sacagawea was not included in the book... but maybe there will be a sequel.

Even though this 180 page book isn't directly written to children, my entire family enjoyed it. My kids had so much fun reading through it, and they really enjoy correcting mom and dad! I would say the reading level is upper elementary and older, at least in our experience.

This is a fun little book to keep in the living room, right out in the open. It's easy to pick up and read a couple of pages, and entertaining enough to read from cover to cover. This hardcover book, measuring about 5" x 7.5", it's the perfect coffee table book. Check it out soon!

This book was sent to me by Blogging For Books for the purpose of review but the opinions are my own.