Marvin Terban

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Marvin I. Terban (born 28 April 1940) is an American children's book author. Called a "master of children's wordplay" by ALA Booklist and "Mr. English for Kids" by the Children's Book-of-the-Month Club, he has written over 35 books for young readers, most of them about the English language. He is Scholastic's "Professor Grammar." Marvin Terban now teaches at Columbia Grammar and Prep, teaching students Latin.

Life and career[]

Terban was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and began his career as an author with a book that he wrote and drew in the first grade about a fuzzy green dragon. His first real writing job was a weekly column for his local newspaper when he was in high school. He was also the editor of his high school newspaper and literary magazine. He went to Tufts and Columbia Universities, where he received bachelor's and master's degrees respectively. For over fifty years, he has taught English, Latin, Public Speaking, Computer, Theater, and other subjects at the Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City.^[1]

Early in his teaching career, Terban took a break to work with schools in the tri-state NYC area who were using educational television in their classes. Returning to his own classroom with renewed energy, he developed teaching games that used humor to help students understand and enjoy the mystifying idiosyncrasies of the English language. Those games grew into the highly original series of funny books on English for which he is known.

Terban's humorous books on language arts skills and wordplay are used in schools all over the United States and abroad. They have even made it as far as Shanghai University in China, where they are used to teach English to adults. His Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms has been translated into Japanese and Korean. Two of his books were turned into early computer games. He and his wife Karen, a former special education instructor, also wrote two activity books for teachers. Three of his Scholastic books, Checking Your Grammar, Dictionary of Idioms, and Dictionary of Spelling, have sold well over one million copies each. In 2005, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, an international organization of over 30,000 creators of children's books, voted Mr. Terban their Member of the Year for his many contributions to the Society and children's literacy.

Terban has been called a "master of children's wordplay" by ALA Booklist and "Mr. English for Kids" by the Children's Book-of-the-Month Club. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature (2006) said that Marvin Terban’s books are “surprisingly intriguing and humorous” with “catchy titles and humorous illustrations” that “captivate anyone who loves words.” He is also Scholastic's "Professor Grammar."

Terban has acted in local community theater plays to raise money for charitable causes. He has also had small parts in movies directed by Woody Allen. For many summers he directed plays at Cejwin, a summer camp in the Catskill Mountains north of New York City. He has paid "Meet the Author" visits to and given presentations about English language arts skills and humor in children's books at schools, colleges, and educational conferences all over the United States, South America, Europe, Israel, and Japan. Marvin and his wife live in New York City across from Central Park. They have two children and two grandchildren. Their grandchildren have two pet dogs and two pet pigs.

Books[]

I Think I Thought: And Other Tricky Verbs (1984)

Too Hot to Hoot: Funny Palindrome Riddles (1985)

Your Foot's on My Feet: And Other Tricky Nouns (1986)

Guppies in Tuxedos: Funny Eponyms (1988)

Dove Dove: Funny Homograph Riddles (1988)

Superdupers: Really Funny Real Words (1989)

Punching the Clock: Funny Action Idioms (1990)

Hey, Hay!: A Wagonful of Funny Homonym Riddles (1991)

Funny You Should Ask: How to Make up Jokes and Riddles with Wordplay (1992)

It Figures: Fun Figures of Speech (1993)

Checking Your Grammar (1993)

Time to Rhyme (1994)

Scholastic Writer's Desk Reference (2001)

Punctuation Power: Punctuation and How to Use It (2002)

Kids' Guide to the English Language (2002)

Building Your Vocabulary (2003)

Verbs! Verbs! Verbs! (2003)

Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms (2006)

Scholastic Dictionary of Spelling (2006)

Ready! Set! Research! Your Fast And Fun Guide To Writing Research Papers That Rock (2007)

The Ultimate Spelling & Vocabulary Reference (2007)

In a Pickle: And Other Funny Idioms (2007)

Mad as a Wet Hen!: And Other Funny Idioms (2007)

Eight Ate: A Feast of Homonym Riddles (2007)

The Ultimate Homework Book (2008)

Pocket Guide to Grammar (2010)

"Marvin Terban's Guide to Grammar Parts of Speech" (2014)

"Laugh It Up! The Funny Kids' Guide to Cracking Jokes" (2019)

References[]