Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster

Miss Alaineus: a vocabulary disaster by Debra FrasierI had expected a collection of riddles. "This is a story!" I exclaimed as I opened it, and I began to read it aloud to my Korean friend. I had bought it to help her with English. I couldn't stop reading. It took me about 20 minutes to read the whole thing aloud, with pauses for laughter. This is a wonderful, funny book. My friend took it up to her room. Later she told me, "I couldn't find Miss Alaineus in the dictionary." Many words are defined in the book, including and especially the word miscellaneous. Someone mentioned double meanings, but the double meanings are the names Ms. Frasier gives to the characters in the story, and all of them are defined immediately. This is one of the funniest books I have ever read. It's clearly meant for schools, but everyone can enjoy it.

This is an incredibly funny story that does an outstanding job of tucking vocabulary instruction into the tale. I’ve used it with both students and adults, and everyone loves it!

This book lends itself to teaching about vocabulary with multiple meanings. It has great illustrations that reinforce word meanings and allow for predicting and drawing conclusions. When I read it to myself I made so many conncections to my own life that the book had me laughing with tears coming down!This book is useful as a shared reading for younger students. I believe fifth grade and up could read it on their own, but would need to bounce some ideas off another student or adult.

I used this book in the classroom when I was a writing teacher. This book lends itself to many vocabulary lessons. I would recommend using it multiple times if focusing on the vocabulary in the book. It could be a little overwhelming for just one read.

We love this book! It's about a young lady who decides to cut corners on her vocabulary test and gives the wrong definition for the word miscellaneous on her vocabulary test. It's a bit advanced for us, but we still enjoyed it. It's funny and well written I'd say the age range is probably 7-10. It's a fun book. Very clever.

Great story, lots of interesting vocabulary, and one of our local schools will be having a real, Vocabulary Parade in October. I loved finding out who the mysterious Miss Alaineus was learn about Miss Sterious. As Sage, the heroine of the story is told by her mother, "There's gold in every mistake." There's gold in this story too.

I loved this book. It is a bright, well written book that any elementary teacher could use in her classroom.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I was excited to share it with my fifth grade class, and they were mesmerized from the very first words...and I began with the Extra Credit Assignment! Anyone who could have watched the enjoyment on the faces of those students would have already ordered their copy of this book. I can tell it was a hit because every student has requested to read it again themselves.Buy this book! You will not be disappointed!

Love this book! It's a clever story & links in with World Book Day if the theme is words/vocabulary.

Excellent book for any teacher who wants to teacher vocabulary.

L'histoire est très intéressante avec un riche vocabulaire. Normal puisque le livre porte sur le vocabulaire! L'auteure de ce livre s'est inspirée de son vécu; la fille de l'auteure avait cru que le mot "miscelleanous" était une personne qui s'appelait "Miss Alaineus".Je conseille ce livre à tous les professeurs d'anglais ou aux anglophones!