the panda's characteristic conduct: it eats, then it shoots, and finally it leaves. Reception In a 2004 review, Louis Menand of The New Yorker pointed out several dozen punctuation errors in the book, including one in the dedication, and wrote that "an Englishwoman lecturing Americans on semicolons is a little like an American lecturing the French on sauces. Some of Truss's departures from punctuation norms are just British laxness." In The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot and Left (Oxford University Press 2006), linguist David Crystal analyses the linguistic purism of Truss and other writers through the ages. In 2006, English lecturer Nicholas Waters released Eats, Roots & Leaves, criticising the "grammar fascists" who "want to stop the language moving into the 21st century". This view was shared by dyslexic English comedian and satirist Marcus Brigstocke in a 2007 episode of Room 101, in which he blames Truss's book for starting off a trend in which people have become "grammar bullies". In her 2005 book Talk to the Hand, Truss acknowledges some of the criticism, obliquely admitting much of it is warranted. Editions In July 2006, Putnam Juvenile published a 32-page follow-up for children entitled Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!. Based on the same concept, this version covers only the section on comma usage and uses cartoons to explain the problems presented by their poor usage. See also Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod Linguistic prescription Standard English References External links 2003 non-fiction books British Book Award-winning works Punctuation of English Style guides for British English Profile Books books