Meet Super Grammar's Author!

Hey Portland-area friends,

I have some super news—I'm doing my first Super Grammar author event in Oregon.

The Beaverton City Library is hosting a local authors fair, and I was invited to join in the fun. The event is on Saturday, April 25th, from 10a.m. to 1p.m. in Beaverton, Oregon (just outside of Portland).

If you're a Super Grammar fan and you're in the area, please stop in to say hello. It's always a great pleasure for me to meet our fans, and I'll be happy to sign your Super Grammar book for you. Plus I'll have some Super Grammar goodies to give away, like bookmarks, stickers, and promo cards. 

I hope to see you there!

Sincerely,
Tony Preciado
(For more info about me, click the AUTHORS link in the tab menu at the top of the page.)

Below are the official flyers for the event, which includes a list of all (27) attending local authors. The library's address is 12375 SW 5th St, Beaverton, OR 97005. (here's a LINK to a google map)

I'll be at table #26 in Meeting Rooms A & B of the Cathy Stanton Conference Room (highlighted in yellow below).

Super Symbols, Assemble!

Hey citizens,
Here are a couple of friendly neighborhood messages from the Super Symbols.

It's time to get ready. And don't forget to share the good news—National Punctuation Day is this coming Wednesday.

Cheers!
The Super Grammar Team

Today We Fight.

Up and at 'em, citizens!

Pick yourselves up. Dust yourselves off. Shake away that weariness, and stand tall. Your sentences need you today!

Yes, I know; fighting for grammar is hard work. It's true. But today we stay strong. Yes, your grammar homework can be tricky. But today we do not give up. And, yes, staying vigilant against grammar mistakes is tiring. But today is March 4th, good citizens, and today we fight.

Sometimes doing the right thing may seem like a thankless job (just ask Superman, Batman, or Spider-man about that), but for those of us who believe in fighting for the greater good, there's no thanks necessary. It's just part of the job.

But if you do choose to join us today—if you do choose to fight for grammar—rest assured that the superheroes of Super Grammar and many, many others will be standing by your side, and we'll all be proud to be part of your team.

Are you ready?

Good. We are too. Let's do this. And, today, may all of our sentences be strong!

In super solidarity,
The Super Grammar Team

FIGHT FOR GRAMMAR GIVEAWAY!

In honor of fighting for grammar on National Grammar Day, we're giving away five (5) Super Grammar power packs! Each power pack includes this:

• An autographed copy of Super Grammar
• One (11"x17") National Grammar Day poster
• A set of four (11"x17") Super Grammar Promo posters
• A bookmark and stickers.

To enter the giveaway, please use the rafflecopter below. Since National Grammar Day is observed in the U.S., this giveaway is only open to readers with U.S. shipping addresses. (terms and conditions of the giveaway)

Good luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Super Grammar Highlights of 2013!

Hi everyone,

With 2013 wrapping up, we can't help but take a look back at our first year as a published book. There are a few stand-out highlights, and we thought it would be fun to share them with you.

Our first highlight was a review by blogger Myles McDonnell on his blog: You know, for Kids. This review was especially cool because Mr. McDonnell wrote it based on the way his son, a second-grader (at the time), responded to Super Grammar. Before reading this review, we weren't quite sure whether Super Grammar's teaching format would be effective for a second-grader. But after reading it, we now have our answer! Have a look: http://youknowforkidsblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/new-books-super-grammar.html

Our second highlight is a two-parter. On her Mommy Maestra blog, Monica Olivera shares her valuable experiences and knowledge about homeschooling her two kids in a bilingual setting, and this is what made her review such a super stand-out for us—it was written from the homeschooler's perspective! Check out the fun and creative ways that this homeschooler put Super Grammar into action for her kids: http://www.mommymaestra.com/2013/03/celebrate-national-grammar-day-with.html.

Also, it turns out that, aside from blogging, Mrs. Olivera also writes articles and is a regular contributor to NBC Latino's website (among others), and this is where this turns into a two-part highlight for us. If you'd like a glimpse into why two artists decided to make a book about grammar, take a look at this interview: http://nbclatino.com/2013/01/30/illustrating-duo-creates-comic-book-to-help-students-master-grammar/.

Our last highlight is a big one for us! In their recently published article, Read like a Professor, Write like a Superhero, the School Library Journal calls out a specific list of books for being "models of good literature" and also for helping students meet with Common Core State Standards—and Super Grammar is at the top of the list! We are absolutely honored to be on this list, but what really makes it a special highlight for us is the fact that Super Grammar is now officially recognized for teaching English grammar in a way that meets with these specific Common Core State Standards:

CCSS L.3.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. 3.1a. Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences.

CCSS L.3.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. 3.2c.Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue. 3.2d.Form and use possessives.

We're very grateful for this acknowledgement, and we're more than pleased to end our first year as a published grammar book on such a good note. Here's the article: http://www.slj.com/2013/09/standards/curriculum-connections/read-like-a-professor-write-like-a-superhero/.

We hope you all had a great year, too. And if you have a Super Grammar highlight for the year that you wouldn't mind sharing with us—please send it our way—or leave us a comment. We'd love to hear about it!

As always, thank you for your super support, and may your sentences always be strong!

All our best,
The Super Grammar Team

P.S.
I hope you don't mind, but I (Tony Preciado, Super Grammar's author) would like to add my own personal side note here about the Mommy Maestra blog. You see, I am a parent (I have a wonderful three-year-old daughter who is growing like a super weed), and as a first-generation Mexican-American, I am also bilingual: I speak both English and Spanish. Now, as you might have already guessed, having a strong and clear understanding of English grammar is super important to me. That said, I also very much love that I can speak, read, and write in Spanish (I think of it as one of my superpowers), and I very much want to pass this ability on to my daughter. Anyway, if you're a parent like me, or a homeschooler, or a teacher who is looking for fun, creative, and insightful ways to help your kids or students learn both English and Spanish, I would highly recommend stopping by Mommy Maestra. I have found it to be a wealth of information on the subject.

Happy Birthday, Super Grammar! (and giveaway)

Holy exclamation points! We're one year old!

That's right, citizens; one year ago today, Super Grammar was officially published by Scholastic books and sent out into the world to help everyone better protect and defend their sentences from mistakes and wrongdoing.

With only one short year of existence tucked under its handy-dandy utility belt, Super Grammar is undoubtedly a very young grammar book. But for such a relatively young book, we're very happy and proud to report that Super Grammar has already received two pretty amazing reviews from two very noteable educational book reviewers: the School Library Journal and Booklist. (Read these reviews here!)

That's some truly awesome news—so let's celebrate!

Since it's our birthday, we thought it would be a good idea to give away some of our Super Grammar birthday presents to you!

Here's what you can win in our Super Grammar Birthday Giveaway:

Three (3) lucky grand prize winners will win an autographed copy of Super Grammar, a set of our four (11"x 17") Super Grammar Promo posters, a National Grammar Day poster, a Super Grammar book bag, two bookmarks, and some stickers.

And five (5) lucky runner up winners will win a set of our four (11"x 17") Super Grammar Promo posters, a National Grammar Day poster, two bookmarks, and some stickers.

We know that Super Grammar has friends all around the world, so this giveaway has no borders. Anyone from any country is welcome to enter. (terms and conditions of the giveaway)

Please use the rafflecopter below to enter the giveaway. 

Good luck, and for those of you getting ready for back-to-school, here's our birthday wish for you: May your sentences always be strong!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We are listening to you!

Hello friends,

We'd like to take a moment to thank the great many of you who have taken the time to let us know (with either emails, comments, or facebook posts) that you're kids and students are learning how to protect their sentences with Super Grammar.

We love hearing that Super Grammar is making a positive difference in the battle between good and bad grammar, and we always appreciate it whenever anybody takes some time out of their busy schedule just to share this good news with us.

These messages are huge bright-spots in our day, and we're always happy to receive them. So once again, to all the parents, students, homeschoolers and teachers who have made the super effort to contact us—thank you!

We'd also like to thank you all for the great feedback in your messages and reviews. Getting this feedback lets us know if we're on the right track. And so far, according to your feedback, Super Grammar is heading in the right direction.

But even though you've let us know that we're on the right track, you've also let us know that Super Grammar still has some work to do. Along with all the kind praise and positive reviews of our Super Grammar book, we have also noticed that there are two questions that keep coming up:

1. "Do you have any workbooks?"
2. "Do you have any posters of the Super Grammar characters?"

Currently, we don't have workbooks or posters to supplement our Super Grammar book. But here's the good news: we think workbooks and posters are a great idea! And now, thanks to your feedback, we will be taking steps toward making them happen.

We don't have a release date (or even a schedule for them) yet, but we want you to know that we are definitely listening to you! And we'll be doing our best to get workbooks and posters moving forward as soon as we can.

Until then, please keep those emails and comments coming our way! They keep us motivated; they're always appreciated; and your input truly makes a difference.

And as always, thank you for teaming up with us!

Sincerely,
The Super Grammar Team

Grammar Good Deed #3

This past Monday, in celebration of National Grammar Day, I paid a friendly visit to Mr. Brandow's 4th grade classroom at Washington Elementary School in Richmond, California, where I got to talk to his students about the power of good grammar!

This was my very first classroom visit as an author, and it was also my first time doing a Super Grammar presentation. I had decided that I would do this visit as a way to bring awareness to National Grammar Day, and with the spirit of Grammar Day in mind, I also decided that I should make my presentation about more than just showing off our Super Grammar superheroes. So in the time leading up to the visit, I really tried to think about a strong and positive grammar message that I wanted the kids to walk away with. Here's the message that I decided on:

I believe that my sentences deserve to be strong and correct.

So during my introduction, as I began to explain why I was there to talk to them about grammar, that's exactly what I told them. I said, "I believe that my sentences deserve to be strong and correct." Then I asked the students, "Do any of you believe that your sentences deserve to be strong and correct?" Right away, some of them raised their hands, and that's when I said, "Good! You know what? I also believe that your sentences deserve to be strong and correct, and I also believe that your sentences are worth fighting for—and that's why I'm here today to talk to you about grammar."

After my introduction, I jumped straight into the Super Grammar portion of my presentation, which included giving my "superhero definition of grammar" and an introduction of our four Super Grammar super-teams. And of course, what Super Grammar presentation would be complete without an actual grammar lesson using our super examples, right? So we did two Super-Grammar-style grammar lessons.

Our first Super Grammar lesson was about the Completion Team and their power to join forces in order to create complete sentences. During this lesson I explained why complete sentences are so important. I asked the students, "If you were a super crime-fighter, would you go into battle with only half your armor?"

With my visual-aid in hand, I exclaimed, "Of course you wouldn't! You'd get clobbered if you did that!" Then I explained how sentences are very much the same. I said, "We'll guess what? It's the same thing with sentences. They need both sides of their armor, too: the Subject and the Predicate."

The new Super Grammar illustration (above), provided by Super Grammar's amazing illustrator, Rhode Montijo, was a big hit in the classroom. It got a lot of laughs from the kids (and from Mr. Brandow, too). I brought along a few other illustrations, pulled from our book, to help us out as we continued our grammar lessons.

I called our first super example into action, and our mission was to check whether this super example sentence was a complete sentence or not.

First, the class helped me find the Subject of the sentence: "Double Vision."
Next, they helped me find the Predicate of the sentence: "is looking for clues."
And after we found both the Subject and the Predicate...

...we watched them join forces to form a complete sentence. Our first grammar lesson was a success!

For our second grammar lesson, I thought it would be fun to learn about a supervillain, so we decided to take on the Fragment. I called another super example illustration from our book into action, and then I asked, "Is this a complete sentence?"

Right away the class answered, "No!" I smiled big when they answered. "Eating up the entire city." was not a complete sentence; it was a fragment sentence. They were right!

But for me, the very best part about this lesson came when I asked them this next question: "What is this sentence missing?" And without skipping a beat, they answered, "A subject!" I couldn't help it; I had to smile again because they were absolutely right. The sentence was indeed missing a subject. We didn't know "who" or "what" was "eating up the entire city." And because this sentence was missing a subject, it was a fragment.

But our work wasn't finished. After we learned that this was a fragment, we decided to fix this broken sentence by adding a subject: Hipposaurus Rex.

Ah! That's better. Now we have a complete sentence!

After the grammar lessons were over, I wrapped up my talk by presenting the class with an official Super Grammar National Grammar Day poster, and by reminding them that it's always a good day to fight for your sentences!

All in all, my first Super Grammar classroom visit went pretty well. We talked about grammar; we talked about superheroes; and in the end, we all had a little fun.

I'd like to thank Mr. Brandow for welcoming me into his classroom, and I'd like to thank his students for being super great during my visit with them.

I'd also like to give a very big thanks to the super-parent responsible for setting this whole thing up. After she asked me to do this talk, I decided that I should do it because it would be a nice grammar-related good deed that I could do for these students on National Grammar Day. But in actuality, this grammar-related good deed belongs to her.

Thank you, Roni, for believing that Super Grammar would be a fun and interesting way for these students to learn about grammar, and thank you for believing that their sentences deserve to be strong and correct!

Cheers!
The Super Grammar Team

Today is National Grammar Day!

Happy National Grammar Day, everybody!

In celebration of this year's National Grammar Day, we here at Super Grammar have decided to do some grammar-related good deeds. And so far, we have successfully completed two of these grammar-related good deeds. You can see them here: Grammar Good Deed #1 and Grammar Good Deed #2.

For today—March 4th—Super Grammar has one more grammar-related good deed to do, and we're pretty excited about it!

Today, for Grammar Good Deed #3, we are doing our very first school visit. And on this school visit, we'll be talking to a class of 4th graders about the importance of good grammar and the importance of fighting to keep your sentences strong and correct. Something just seemed perfect about doing this on National Grammar Day itself!

During this classroom visit, we're planning on doing a Super-Grammar-style grammar review using our superheroes, supervillains, and Super Examples from our book. We're hopeful that the kids will enjoy our presentation and that afterwards they'll all have a better understanding and appreciation for the power of good grammar! (We'll post about this school visit tomorrow, so be sure to check back with us later to hear the super details.)

We wish we had the time to stop in on everybody's 4th grade classroom today, including yours. But let's face it, even our superpowers have their limits! In any case, we hope that you will also join us in celebrating this National Grammar Day by fighting to keep your sentences strong and correct!

To do a grammar review of your own, just use the "LABELS" menu bar (on the right-hand side) to choose any Super Grammar character you'd like to learn about, or click on any of the Super Grammar super-team images below to learn more about that super-team:

 

Have a happy National Grammar Day, and may your sentences always be strong!

Sincerely,
The Super Grammar Team

Grammar Good Deed #2

In honor of this year's (fast approaching) National Grammar Day on March 4th, we here at Super Grammar thought it would be a good idea to do some grammar-related good deeds. Doing a grammar-related good deed can be a lot easier than you might think. Check it out...

For Super Grammar's second grammar-related good deed, I headed out to my friendly neighborhood bookstore, which in my case is the Books Inc. on Park Street in Alameda, CA. This is a great little book store. I'll often stop in to pick up books for my 2-1/2 year old daughter. Anyways, on their bookshelves, I found a nice copy of Super Grammar.

After finding it, I took my copy of Super Grammar up to the counter and bought it. And after buying the book, I opened it up and I signed it.

Now, here is where the good deed part comes in. Just a few steps away from the counter is a donation box for The East Bay Children’s Book Project. This wonderful organization works to promote literacy and learning in the Bay Area by putting books into the hands of children who have little or no access to them.

I was very happy to add Super Grammar to the large stack of books that were already filling the donation bin, and I was also hopeful that, somewhere out there, a kid was going to be happy that he or she got a book about grammar, especially one filled with superheroes and supervillains!

So like I said, doing a grammar-related good deed can be a lot easier than you might think, and giving a grammar book to a kid might just be the perfect way to celebrate National Grammar Day. And even if it's not—you'll probably still feel really good after doing it.

If you're in the Bay Area and you'd like to donate a book to this organization, whether it be it a grammar book, a science book, or any other kind of children's book, you can find their drop off locations here: Donate. If you're not in the Bay Area, check with your local book store or library to see if they're participating in any similar types of programs.

Cheers!
The Super Grammar Team

Grammar Good Deed #1

Look alive, citizens!

National Grammar Day is just around the corner, and we here at Super Grammar would like to lend a super-powered helping hand in raising awareness to this special day. So in honor of this year's National Grammar Day, March 4th, we're planning on doing some grammar-related good deeds.

For our first good deed, we'd like to offer you this: A free (print-it-yourself) National Grammar Day Poster!

Just grab the high-resolution PDF file from our download page and print!

This poster (featuring the Subject) is available in two sizes: 8.5"x11" (small) and 17"x22" (large). You can pick the size that works best for you, or you can grab them both. And remember, these files are free, so be sure to pass this along to your friends.

Grab the FREE FILES HERE!

We hope this poster is as a good start to powering up your National Grammar Day, and we also hope it serves to inspire some of you to plan on doing some grammar-related good deeds of your own.

Have a great Friday, and may your sentences always be strong!

Sincerely,
The Super Grammar Team

Free Worksheets / Our Letter to Teachers

Hey everybody,

Here's a free (print-it-yourself) Super Grammar poster and three activity worksheets, compliments of our good friends at Scholastic. All you need to do is download the high-resolution PDF file and print!

Here's the link: http://www.scholastic.com/supergrammar/sg.pdf

Where did it come from? Well, earlier this year, Scholastic asked us if we would help them put together an official Super Grammar promotional poster for educator events and conventions. Their idea was to make a large (17"x22") double-sided poster which educators would be able to use in their classrooms or libraries in two different ways. We thought that this was a great idea, so we agreed to help make it happen.

We immediately got to work, and with the additional help of our super talented art team, Jenny Hanson and Joe To, we soon put together everything that we needed to complete this poster. It was a lot of work to do in a very short amount of time, but we all knew that it was going to be helpful to teachers, so we were very happy to do it. And now that the work is finished, we are even happier to learn that this poster is now available to anyone who wants to grab the download!

The front side of the poster features the Subject and the Predicate joining forces in order to form a complete sentence. Here's how it turned out:

The back side of the poster is designed to function in a completely different way. It is comprised of four different (8.5"x11") pages which all connect together to form the larger sized poster, but each of these pages acts as a separate Super Grammar activity sheet.

Most of these pages are Super Grammar worksheets which can be photocopied by teachers and handed out to their students. There are three worksheets in total:

1. The Completion Team Challenge
2. The Noun Team Challenge
3. The Double Negative Team Challenge. 

All three of these worksheets are included as part of the free downloadable pdf from Scholastic.

There is also a fourth page on the back of the poster, but this fourth page is not a worksheet. Instead, it is a letter (from us) addressed to teachers. Having the opportunity to write this letter was really great for us because it gave us a chance to explain what Super Grammar is all about. Unfortunately, the original text which we wrote for this letter was a little too long for the space that was available on the page for the poster, so it had to get edited down. But since space isn't an issue on our blog, we'd like to end this post by sharing with you the complete and unedited version of our letter addressed to teachers:

Teachers of the world,

It’s no secret to us that teachers are really superheroes.

You all possess extraordinary powers which allow you to inspire large groups of children. You all have the amazing ability to transfer knowledge directly into the minds of your students. And we’re also pretty sure that most of you have eyes in the backs of your heads.

But we also know that, even with these tremendous superpowers, teaching the subject of English grammar can be a difficult task.

Knowing this dilemma, we’d like to offer you our super assistance in the form of our book: Super Grammar. Super Grammar is a very fun, super visual, and highly engaging approach to teaching English grammar using superheroes and supervillains.

In our experience, the best learning tools have always included these three things: word association, visual aids, and superpowers. For this reason, we’ve taken all the major elements of grammar and have personified them with the identity of either a superhero or supervillain, and we’ve taken their word functions and have transformed them into superpowers. 

So with Super Grammar, you won’t just learn about an ordinary part of speech called an adverb. Instead, you will actually meet the vibrant superhero called the Adverb, and you’ll learn about her awesome ability to modify verbs and other adverbs.

Also, you won’t simply be told that you shouldn’t use a double negative in a sentence. Instead, you will actually meet the sinister twin brothers that make up the supervillain team called Double Negative, and then you’ll learn why you shouldn’t let them trick you into falling for their double-talk!

And as you meet these super characters, there will also be illustrated and colorful example sentences that will help you practice and remember the grammar that you are learning. But Super Grammar will never use run-of-the-mill, textbook examples like, “Jane washed her hands before dinner.” No! Super Grammar will only use Super Examples like, “The masked hero rescued the crowd.”

In fact, Super Grammar’s superhero format is consistent throughout the entire book. From parts of speech, through punctuation, and in every one of the example sentences—the superhero tone and humor will always prevail!

So, good teachers of the world, when it comes to teaching English grammar—have no fear. Super Grammar is on the way, and we’re here to help!

Sincerely,

The Super Grammar Team

Thank you, Comic-Con!

This was a great year for Super Grammar at Comic-Con. And with our book being released on September 1st, we were really super excited to be there to share the news. The great thing, though, is that once people started learning about our book and how it uses superheroes and supervillains to teach the basics of grammar, they also wanted to help us get the word out—like these two MythBusters!

Holy interjections, did it feel great when MythBusters Tory Belleci and Kari Byron stopped by to show their support for Super Grammar. Tory even tweeted about us on his twitter feed.

Comic-Con also had other surprises in store for us, like another tweet about Super Grammar by the amazingly talented Industrial Light and Magic Art Dept. These super artists can draw and design some truly amazing stuff, so to have them give us a nod was really an honor. Thanks a lot, you guys!

With all this extra press happening, we were really glad that we had our promo posters and bookmarks printed up and ready for Comic-Con. We even had some Super Grammar logo t-shirts printed up. Here's a picture of Rhode and me at the Super Grammar booth wearing our t-shirts.

 

Well, actually, Rhode couldn't wear his t-shirt because he was dressed in costume to promote his very wonderful Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) inspired book called Skeletown (check out Skeletown here!). But he always kept his t-shirt nearby.

Costumes, posters, and twitters aside, though, the very best thing about going to Comic-Con is always the same for us—it's getting to meet you!

To all of you who have been following our blog and/or facebook page and took the time to stop by our booth just to meet us and say "Hi," (you know who you are) thank you so very much. We can't tell you how much we appreciate you and all the support that you give us. And to all of you whom we met for the first time at this year's Comic-Con and have only just learned about this blog and our book, welcome to Super Grammar!

Sincerely,
The Super Grammar Team

It's time for Comic-Con!

About a year ago, Super Grammar made its official public debut at the San Diego Comic-Con, and that's when we let everybody know that we were working on a Super Grammar book. But this year, we're coming back to say, "We finished it!"

To help us get the word out, we've printed up some new Super Grammar promos, like these two posters. The one on the left shows the actual cover to our book, along with its release date and where you can pre-order a copy. And the one on the right is a promo for our blog site.

Also, since we won't have an actual display copy of our book available to show (although we did try), we still wanted to be able to give the Comic-Con goers a preview of all our Super Grammar characters, so we printed up a couple Super Grammar Characters preview booklets that we'll be keeping on hand at our booth (which by the way is booth 1329) so that we can share the look of our Super Grammar superheroes and supervillains.

Here's a peek at the how the preview booklets came out. (And it's also a sneak peek at some new Super Grammar character designs!)

We're really excited to be going back to Comic-con this year, and we're super excited to share the news about our book being released. If you're also going to the Comic-con, please stop in on us at BOOTH 1329 and say hello. We hope to see you there!

Sincerely,
The Super Grammar Team

Super Grammar is on the way!

Hello Citizens,

We've been really busy here at Super Grammar Headquarters for the past few months. We've been working on a high priority super mission that has been requiring our full and undivided attention. But now that this super mission has been successfully completed, we can now share some super, amazing news with you.

Our book—Super Grammar—is on the way!

That's right, citizens; Super Grammar is getting published! We just finished wrapping up production on 176 full color pages of Super Grammar. And, as promised, these pages are all jam-packed with superheroes, supervillians, and fully illustrated super example sentences which are all designed to help everyone better understand and easily remember all the important elements related to English grammar (See "ABOUT: SUPERGRAMMAR" on the menu bar at the top).

Super Grammar will be available on September 1st of this year—just in time for back-to-school. But you don't have to wait for back-to-school to order your copy of Super Grammar. You can reserve a copy anytime through this link: Order Super Grammar!

We're really super excited to share this news with you. And in the coming weeks, we'll be sharing more information, artwork, and Super Grammar related fun, so stay tuned!

Sincerely,
The Super Grammar Team

Super Teachers!

Unbelievable! The heroes and villains of Super Grammar have been brought to life! 

On October 28, (just before Halloween) this picture was posted onto our Super Grammar facebook page.  When we first saw it, we were knocked out.  “These are Super Grammar characters,” we thought, “and these costumes are amazing!”  But how did this happen?  Where did these heroes come from?  Our curiosity was too great, and we knew that we had no choice; we had to learn the truth.  So, using the awesome (and nearly unlimited) power of our hypertext transfer protocol device, we made contact with these mysterious beings, and then we asked them to tell us—their origins story.

We soon learned that this photo was sent to us by a courageous group of 3^rd grade teachers from King-Chavez Arts and Athletics Academies in San Diego, and they told us that they made these super costumes for their school’s fall carnival.  But why did they do it?  Well, here’s what they said:

"This year we started using Super Grammar as part of our lessons. As we introduce our weekly grammar standard, we accompany it with a Super Grammar hero or villain. Our kids have been so into it and are always begging for more, so we thought they would LOVE it if their very own teachers turned into super heroes for a day... and oh boy! We all had a blast!"

And so, these valiant teachers dressed up as: The Subject (Ms Lima), The Predicate (Ms. Hernandez), The Noun (Mrs. Woodhead), and The Fragment (Mr. Hobson).   We couldn’t help but notice what a great job they did on their costumes, too.  We were really impressed with the level of detail and craftsmanship that they had put into each character.  It’s obvious that they had fun making the costumes, but wait; their fun was just getting started.  As part of their super powered mission, they came up with a way to share the fun of their super identities with their students!  Here’s how they did it: 

"During the day of the carnival, we each printed out mini cards with our character on them. We challenged our kids to collect all of the cards by the end of the day to earn a prize. As they came up to each of us we asked them to: tell us who we were, what our super hero's power was or to give an example (of a noun, subject, predicate, fragment). We were amazed at how many prizes we had to give away. Now our only problem is: how on Earth will we be able to top this next year!?"

Truly, only the mightiest of teachers could have pulled off such a bold and daring feat of super powered creativity.  Ms. Lima, Ms. Hernandez, Mrs. Woodhead, and Mr. Hobson; you’re super awesome, and Super Grammar salutes you.  Well done, heroes.  Well done!

As a small “Thank you,” for doing proper justice to the Super Grammar characters, we’ve sent each of you a Super Grammar Bookmark and a set of promo cards.  We hope you enjoy them, and thank you again for making this year's Halloween so special for us!

Sincerely,

The Super Grammar Team

P.S.  If—You—have a Super Grammar story that you’d like to share, please email us (here) or post it onto our facebook page.  We’d love to hear about it! 

Super Grammar's Public Debut

Super Grammar has just wrapped its first year at the San Diego Comic-Con! 

Here’s a shot (above) of our display.  It featured our double-sided bookmarks and five different promo cards.  We made these bookmarks and promo cards as give-away items to help spread the word about Super Grammar.

 

Here’s a picture (above) of the full table display at the Comic-Con booth.  Super Grammar proudly shared table space with Rhode Montijo’s other children's books: The Halloween Kid, Cloud Boy, Skeletown, and T-t-tartamudo. 

Now, you might be thinking that our Super Grammar display looks a little small, but this small display represents a very big step for us.  You see, this is the first time that we’ve ever presented Super Grammar outside of this blog, so that makes this event—our official public debut!  And, we’re happy to report that our debut went over pretty well. 

The bookmarks, especially, were a big hit!  We printed a thousand of them, and they were all gone by mid Saturday.  If we had any idea that we were going to run out, we would have printed more; but honestly, it was a surprise to us that so many people were interested in having one.  Bookmarks—who knew?

Our promo cards did pretty well, too.  On that front, it was our supervillain card featuring The Fragment that was the highest in demand, but that’s only when someone was interested in taking a single card.  For the most part, I was noticing that people were grabbing one of each so that they had the whole set. 

Here’s a shot (above) of convention goers checking out the goods.

All in all, it was a super fun time, and it felt really great to finally have Super Grammar out in the light of day.  Getting to watch the reactions of people who were seeing Super Grammar for the first time was also a big treat for us.  We’d here things like, “Super Grammar, Yeah!” and, I remember one guy saying, “I love superheroes, and I love grammar, so this is perfect.”  Getting the chance to meet and talk with all these fun people (many of them in costume) was absolutely the best part.  In fact, getting to physically talk to people about Super Grammar has made all of the hard work that we’ve been putting into creating it feel hugely satisfying.  It’s a great feeling to have, so we’d like to pass along our gratitude to all of you who stopped by and shared your excitement and support for Super Grammar with us.  Thank you!

Before we wrap up this post, we’ve got one more picture for you. 

Here are the creators of Super Grammar in their mild mannered disguises: Rhode Montijo (left) and Tony Preciado (right).

Thanks for all the fun, Comic-Con.  And, to all of you who have just found out about Super Grammar, be it by Comic-Con or not, welcome.  We’ve got more Super Grammar heroes and villains on the way!

Sincerely,

The Super Grammar Team

p.s. We’d like to give super special thanks to our talented friend who is Rhode’s Booth partner, Jamie Baker, for all of his support through Comic-Con. 

Thanks, Jamie!

Super Grammar Promo Cards

The San Diego Comic-Con is happening this week (July 21st-24th), and even though we already have our Super Grammar bookmarks to give out, we just couldn’t help ourselves, so we made these promo cards, too!

Super Grammar will be at BOOTH 1329.

We hope to see you there!

Super Grammar Goes To Comic-Con

Holy interjections!  Super Grammar is going to the San Diego Comic-Con this year!

That’s right—our favorite children’s books author/illustrator and co-creator of Super Grammar, Rhode Montijo, will be adding Super Grammar to his annual line-up of featured children’s books, comics, and artwork at this years Comic-Con, July 21–24. 

Currently, our Super Grammar book is still in production, so we won’t have actual copies of our book available this year, but we will be putting out the good word about our super powered version of grammar as well as promoting our supergrammar.com website.

To help us with our promotion, we’ll be giving away these super powerful bookmarks.  They have the awesome power to help you remember which page you’re on in a book you’re reading—ANY book.  Plus, they have the added power of helping you remember where to find our website.  Behold their glory!

One side of the bookmark will feature the heroes.

And the flip side will feature the villains.

If you’re going to Comic-Con this year, please stop in on us and pick up a bookmark.  We’d love to meet you!  

We’ll be posting our convention hall location as soon as we have the info. 

Thanks for visiting, and we’ll see you there!

Sincerely,

The Super Grammar Team