Catch a Wave Compounds is a book in a series entitled Grammar All-Stars. And, while the book's goal may be to further understanding of compound nouns, there is a lot more of linguisitc interest here.
Through the various chapters, three types of compound nouns are employed and explained: closed, hyphenated, and open. The book acknowledges that it may be difficult to know the type for sure, so they recommend consulting a dictionary.
While I like the way the grammar is woven into the story, there are other elements of the book that I appreciate. The book is an excellent way to develop metalinguistic awareness. The lexicon is that of the sports world, particularly surfing. There are many colorful words and terms that the book uses such as wetsuits, waterproof, whitecaps, seashore, and airborne. There is also the unique jargon used by surfers such as rad, wipeout, three-sixty, dude, major air and hanging ten. The book can be a conversation starter about how specific language suits specific situations. Also, like another Grammar All-Stars book, Slap Shot, there are play-by-play descriptions of the action, complete with many vivid verbs. The book's passages could be easily translated into a type of reader's theater/ sportscast hybrid. While addressing the more formal aspects of English language, grammar, Catch-A-Wave also manages to exemplify the fluidity of our language. ( )