Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences [Paperback]

Kitty Burns Florey (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0156034433 | ISBN-13: 978-0156034432 | Publication Date: November 5, 2007

In its heyday, sentence diagramming was wildly popular in grammar schools across the country. Kitty Burns Florey learned the method in sixth grade from Sister Bernadette: "It was a bit like art, a bit like mathematics. It was a picture of language. I was hooked." Now, in this offbeat history, Florey explores the sentence-diagramming phenomenon, including its humble roots at the Brooklyn Polytechnic, its "balloon diagram" predecessor, and what diagrams of famous writers’ sentences reveal about them. Along the way Florey offers up her own commonsense approach to learning and using good grammar. Charming, fun, and instructive, Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog will be treasured by all kinds of readers, from grumpy grammarians and crossword-puzzle aficionados to students of literature and lovers of language.

Editorial Reviews

Review

PRAISE FOR SISTER BERNADETTE’S BARKING DOG

"Florey writes with verve about the nuns who taught her to render the English language as a mess of slanted lines, explains how diagrams work, and traces the bizarre history of the men who invented this odd pedagogical tool . . . It’s a great read."--Slate

 

"This gem from copyeditor Florey is a bracing ode to grammar: it’s laced with a survivor’s nostalgia for classrooms ruled by knuckle-cracking nuns who knew their participles."—People

About the Author

KITTY BURNS FLOREY, a veteran copyeditor, is the author of nine novels and many short stories and essays. A longtime Brooklyn resident, she now divides her time between central Connecticut and upstate New York with her husband, Ron Savage.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (November 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156034433
• ISBN-13: 978-0156034432
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 7.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #319,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kitty Burns Florey is the author of Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting and Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences. A veteran copy editor, she has also written nine novels and many short stories and essays. She lives in Connecticut.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book!, October 30, 2006

By 

T. MacCombie (Amherst, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences (Hardcover)

Who would have thought one could write such a funny, and charming, and informative book on sentence diagramming? Kitty Florey weaves her own 6th grade experiences diagramming sentences under the watchful eye of Sister Bernadette, and then reflects on other writers, notably Gertrude Stein, who was passionate about grammar, and even loved diagramming, (who knew?) but then wrote sentences that obeyed her OWN rules and defied grammatical conventions. Florey's tone, throughout this delightful book, is one of spontaneous humor and warmth. She is passionate about language herself, and seeing how language has evolved, with or without the help of diagramming, is a fascinating look at ourselves, our culture, and gives us a clue about what the future may hold for the written and spoken word.

78 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Barking for Bernadette, October 27, 2006

By 

Michelle Bisson (New York) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences (Hardcover)

This book is a fabulous read: it is brilliant, erudite, easy-to-read, and laugh-out-loud funny. It will teach you all you never even thought to ask about diagramming sentences, but it is about far more than that. Really, it's an exploration of the evolution of the English language, the gap between those of us who MUST speak and write properly and those who say--whatever. Mostly, it'll make you laugh out loud and how many authors can do that? Move over, Lynn Truss and David Sedaris.

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A walk down memory lane, December 4, 2006

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences (Hardcover)

It's wonderful to meet, though just through writing, someone who had as much fun diagramming sentences as I did. If only she had enjoyed parsing sentences and conjugating verbs as much :-). The author had excellent control of her material as she went through her memories, the history of the diagrams and the delightfully convoluted sentences from a variety of writers. Only twice did I want to question her. First, for her definition of parsing which left out all the fun - mood, tense, person, number; second, for her dismissal of the tree diagrams used by linguists where she ignored their main advantage - going down to the smallest level of meaning e.g. -ed noted as a past tense marked on walked. Moving past the nit-picking, which as a copy editor the author implied she would enjoy, I only became bored/willing to set the book down in the final chapter - the "survey" of the use of diagramming in today's classrooms and what diagramming actually teaches one.

I definately recommend this book to anyone who loved to diagram sentences.