Making a Point for Diagramming Here
So Much for a Title That Tells You What You're about to Get
When the title doesn't tell you what the author is about but the illustration of it does, a reader might guess
she is in for a ride somewhat different than the ones she has taken when she's opened the pages of books on other
occasions.
Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog is such a book. If I tell you this book is about diagramming sentences
you must -I repeat must- not run screaming from this review. For this book is indeed different and wholly entertaining.
First, Author Kitty Burns Florey knows what a hook is. She knows it as well as great novelists and the best
screenwriters. The book opens with Sister Bernadette writing on a blackboard with a flourish, fastening her young
charges to the miracle of language by drawing them a picture -which is, after all, what diagramming is. We feel the
intensity of why the author was so taken with such a demonstration (and such a personality). With that sharing of
emotion, we also get an inkling that this will be a diagramming exercise like none we've ever taken before.
So, we have here not only a lesson on learning syntax by using art -call it geometry, if you prefer- but we also
get the anecdote, the thrill, the good and tender story behind the dry and humdrum facts.
Second, we have here an exquisite hardback ($19.95 US), which makes this book an ideal gift for anyone who loves
language -from a copywriter to the writers of the nightly news (who, I hope, still do love language!). And the book's
design! Rarely does it deserve a mention but this one surely does. David Konopka merits accolades for making this
lovely book by Kitty Burns Florey a work of art, just like the art of language that Foley is working to get across
to her readers.
Third, there are just enough scholarly touches to help Dog Barking maintain its authority. We have
annotation. Yes, on the first page, no less! An allusion to Twain and Fenimore Cooper; annotation throughout
entertains and convinces us of Florey's erudition.
I remember a book from the early 60s about the origins of our alphabet that was a very unlikely runaway
bestseller. There are many similar ones on the same subject now but none that that capture the imagination of a
nation like that one did. It was magic that made it a book club favorite. Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog
may match its popularity. It is indeed the rare, fine combination of teaching and touching.