Thirty Days Has September

by Christopher Stevens

"Thirty Days Has September" helps with learning all of those confusing rules of language and mathematics, and those tricky facts from science, history and geography. It makes a lovely gift from parent to child and a perfect learning companion to help all school children. It is a treasure trove of easy methods to take important information from the back of the mind to the tip of children's tongues.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Education, Language, Childrens, School, Trivia

128 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2008

About the author

Christopher Stevens is a widely published writer and journalist. His biography of Kenneth Williams, Born Brilliant, was abridged as a Radio Four Book of the Week, and shortlisted for the Sheridan Morley Theatre Biography prize. His celebration of the fathers of classic sitcom, Galton & Simpson, was launched at the National Theatre on London's South Bank and led to the premiere performance of a lost comedy masterpiece, The Day Off, which he discovered.

His memoir, A Real Boy, was hailed as "incredibly moving" by the Sun. For the past 15 years, Christopher Stevens has been a senior sub-editor at the Observer, Britain's oldest and most respected Sunday newspaper. He has also written for newspapers and magazines from Hello! to the Telegraph, and been interviewed more than 50 times for television and radio about his books, including keynote appearances on NPR and CNN. - from book bio.

Reviews

[Malcolm Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I ought to have read this when I was younger and I'd certainly recommend it to young readers interested in remembering trivia, dates and scientific factoids.
At my age there's just too much stuff in here for me that wasn't new but what struck me was how dated some of the style was. Mnemonics can be fascinating and handy but they work best when related to the topic.
"Dashing in a rush, running hard or else accident" is a great way to remember how to spell diarrhoea. It's linked to the topic and funny (but not in this book) and therefore more memorable. Too many of the mnemonics in this book are random phrases, which aren't necessarily the easiest things to remember in themselves. Chris Stevens has done a fine job in compiling all of this information but I'd have appreciated some effort in updating it too.
"No Point Letting Your Trousers Slip Half Way" is intended to help us remember the English Royal Houses (Norman, Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, Tudor, Stuart, Hanover and Windsor) but has no bearing on the topic. That's not to say it can't be remembered but why not try to overhaul it? `Noble posh leaders, yet they're still half-wits" would do the job (if inaccurate and defamatory) or "No peasant loves your throne, so hear wisdom".
I'm a grump and I'll admit it. I remember "Never Eat Shredded Wheat" for North East South West and "Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain" for the colours of the rainbow (with the added advantage of including trivia about the last of the reigning Plantagenets) and these mnemonics have no relationship with their subjects. Perhaps then I'm being overly critical. Nonetheless, some of this stuff could definitely be improved upon.
Still, good for kids with some fun rhymes. I think it would work best alongside some other kind of memory teaching if you're hoping to absorb the information. Not a work for someone trying to actually improve their memory.

[Hanine ϟ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this general knowledge book and I think I would have benefited more from it had I read it as a child. However, I’m convinced mnemonics aren’t for me because even as a child, I tried using them and most of them never helped me remember the fact they’re based on. In fact, I had trouble remembering the mnemonics themselves.

Then again, I don’t think I was the target audience of the book (seeing as I work as an editor and a writer). Some of these were interesting refreshers of the rules though, or why a rule is the way it is, because for most of these I just apply them without knowing why. My favourite entry from the book is exclamation points and how it’s bad practice to use more than one- no millennial I know is limiting the number of their exclamation points anytime soon!

One thing I really enjoyed is the fact that the book I borrowed from the library had annotations at certain points, by whoever borrowed it before me, disagreeing with parts of it. Like the metaphors part said “that’s actually an idiom” next to some of them. Honestly, relatable!

[Chloe Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, no I didn't realize this was a children's book when I started reading it. I've never been able to remember which months have 30 days and which have 31 so the title stuck out to me. It's filled with mnemonics and I have always been that person that makes up a phrase to remember things. I did it in elementary and I still do it as an adult.
I wish I could say I didn't learn anything from a book made for kids in elementary but I did. I finally understand the months lengths! It was also a nice refresher on the parts of grammar that are so basic I haven't had anyone mention them to me since 4th grade. Overall, there isn't a lot of necessarily important information in this book. I probably will never need to know the planets in order of size or all the presidents in order, that just doesn't come up much. It was also pretty European based and still published under the Bush presidency, so it's a little outdated and may not be especially relevant to those in other places. But I do think this would be a great book for any kid 6-12.

[Gabrielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

My mom forced me to get this from a scholastic catalog to neutralize the brainrot I’d get from ordering the hunger games book/necklace/poster bundle I wanted

[Della Tingle · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a teacher, I use a LOT of mnemonic devices in my classroom in every subject. So, for me, for my subjects and interests, I had already heard of most of these. However, this would be a worthwhile book for a studious kid. These are my favorite new mnemonics learned from this book.

A lot of kids (and adults) have trouble spelling necessary. “When it’s neCeSSary to wear a nice shirt remember that it has one Collar and two SleeveS.”

For spelling sincerely, “SINCE I RELY on honesty, I must say things SINCERELY.”

Affect vs. Effect
Use the RAVEN acronym. Remember: Affect, Verb; Effect, Noun.

I LOVE this for metaphor. “I MET A friend PHOR tea. She is such a star.”

And this for Mount Rushmore:
We Just Like Rushmore:
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt.

[ella ☆ any pronouns · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was pretty clever, but most of the ways to memorize things were long and complicated sentences that really didn't have any or at least not a strong relevance to what it was being used to help you memorize. I'm not going to remember 300 long sentences that have two letters of what the word is that I'm trying to remember. If I was in like third grade, I know that I would not be able to remember 98% of them.

I will say, however, they did do a good job at teaching what things such as conjunctions, adverbs, proper nouns, etc. are. That aspect of it I enjoyed and it was easy to follow and learn from.

[Beth Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Need a book that helps with rules of language, grammar help and other interesting ways to remember things? This small little manual is the perfect gift for students to help them with some of the most common challenges in learning language tips. While this is most likely geared towards the student population I found several things in it that helped me with some questions I had. Great little manual to keep handy when writing or when a question has you wondering.

[Mairéad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of quick tricks and suggestions for mnemonics to help primary aged children (7-13) remember key facts in English, maths and SESE. One of those books where every one will take a few different tidbits from it that they find helpful and promptly forget the rest! I can definitely see myself using some of the mnemonics and poems with my pupils in future.

[C.P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book for children, which I hope to one day use to educate my kin. In my case, all the while removing the ego, it was a great way to review elementary concepts that had hidden away from me since my own youth.

[Ellen Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an impulsive op shop find and I tore through it within an hour. It’s a nice light read if you’re looking to break up your longer/more serious books. I especially liked the biological classifications & the homophones.

[CaroleHeidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good fun book that was given to my daughter (aged 8) - handy little ideas presented in a fun way. She loves it and it made me smile.

[Sally Lovelock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t realise this was a children’s book 😂 For the correct audience I’m sure it would be much better than for me!

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

It a little book of things that you might have learned it school but have forgotten, or you didn't learn at all. It a very fast read and it's a good reference book to have on hand.

[Paul Potts · Rating 4 out of 5]

We all should reread these easy-to-learn quips every 10 years or so.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

some common & helpful mnemonics, some completely non-sensical & ridiculous

[DaShannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this book for awhile and it just took me until now to read it cover to cover. So many great tips to remember various things, it has mnemonics and explanations, spelling tips and funny commentary. I'll use it in the classroom routinely.

[Amina E. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Title: Thirty Days Has September
Author: Chris Steven
Genre: Informational, Nonfiction
Number of Pages: 124 Pages

Summary: This informational book is full of different methods to help school-children memorize knowledge. They have ways to memorize info using mnemonic devices, rhymes, acronyms and pictures. This book includes ways to help spell certain words. It also includes rules of punctuation. Included are ways to understand grammar and parts of speech. Homophones are also mentioned in this book. The different types of figurative language are described in a section of this book. In this book are some poems to help memorize things like the Greek alphabet or the Seven Wonders of The World. There is also a very long poem about the order of the presidents. Ways to remember the points of a compass, the continents, the oceans, and the great lakes are included in the geography section. In the math section are different ways to remember the multiplication rules. This is just some of the different methods used in this book to help everyone with memorization.

Review: I think that this book, by Chris Stevens, is full of very useful methods to help kids study and memorize things. There was such a variety of ways to help children. This means that there should be something for everyone in this book. Some people may prefer to use mnemonic devices while others prefer rhymes. Whatever method someone prefers, this book can help people discover what works best for them. Though the ideas and methods they used were good, I thought that some of the examples were very bad. The ideas behind the examples were helpful but lots of the examples were silly. I would recommend this book to people who want to read a quick, short book. If someone needs help studying this book could be helpful. Overall, this book was okay but some parts of it were just plain useless.

[Adam A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thirty Days Has September helps you learn how to remember stuff and definitely helped me learn how to remember the parts of speech and their meanings. Ways it did this was the little tunes like righty tighty, lefty loosey and other stuff like that. The book also uses mnemonics to help you remember like Never Enter Santa's Workshop. This book has ways to remember things for almost everything you can think of and a lot of school mnemonics that help with all of your subjects. The math part includes PEMDAS and times tables. After they talk about educational stuff it moves to out of school stuff that you need to know. The history and social studies parts went deep into history and especially geography.

I liked how the book helped me learn new ways to remember stuff and I will try to use some of these in school so I don't forget stuff. I liked the history part because I love history and it told me about some stuff I had no idea about and it was educational too. The book also told me about stuff I had already learned about which was a bummer. I still enjoyed this book and it gave me more knowledge on how to make mnemonics that will actually help me. Without this I would have never learned Ever Kayaked Twice (2) With A Kangaroo?, this stands for the worlds tallest mountains, Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn cool mnemonics and ways to remember stuff.

[Ashleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, quick book full of handy tricks to remember things. While a lot of it is primary school things, some of it is pretty useful in every day life (one thing I have always stumbled on is affect/effect - this book contains two or three methods that will stick in my mind!). There's a lot of useful information in handy little packages; mnemonics, poems, simple little sentences.

My personal favourite section was that on History - with methods to remember Kings and Queens of England/UK/Great Britain, Presidents of the USA, the seven wonders of the world and the Greek Alphabet (which, I have to admit I already knew).

What I dislike about this book is how condescending it is. Given that it seems to be aimed more at he adult market, the way it's written is very juvenile and patronising. I know I would have really benefited from this book when I was at middle school - especially the grammar and spelling help! Easily a 3/5 - would be better if it were less patronising and I would have felt ripped off had I paid full price for it - 75p was acceptable.

[Willow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll admit that loving the cover of this book is the sole reason I picked it up. :-) The book was good, though definitely geared toward elementary/early middle school students. There were a lot of nifty mnemonics and clever poems; while a lot of it was utterly basic (it includes instructions on just HOW to sing the ABC's), I was thrilled to find beneficial info my rusty out-of-school-for-too-long brainwaves didn't know/remember, and tricks to remember said forgotten items. Notably, a tongue twister teaching the letters of the Greek alphabet, a poem containing the American presidents in sequence, a rhyme useful for learning the kings and queens of England, an acrostic for the royal families of England and another for remembering the countries of Central America (and picturing the "elephant" the countries make together), and some basics of geometry that I had failed to retain.

I want to buy this book to use with my kids for school!

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay book for remembering facts or trivia. Nothing incredibly special about it, and some of the mnemonics used are not very memorable or remarkable (most seem to completely made-up for this book).

The best audience for this book would be grade-school students and their parents (with the intent that they read the book together and the parents quiz the children) or even better, a grade-school teacher. For a grown-adult, it's almost a waste of time, besides to reminisce of what they learned in school or to hear things they never learned (because they have little bearing on our day to day lives).

I would read this again, only to see if I absorbed any of the info (not likely, as I already knew most, and the rest was so unimportant it wasn't worth giving much thought to).

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should have known how simple this book would be when I saw it is published by Scholastic. I had been looking for tips to help my husband remember "Thirty days hath September…" For what it is, it is good, just way too simple (condescending) for an adult. The author covers many different subjects, the order of the planets starting at the sun and moving out, the order of the planets from largest to smallest, the eight parts of speech, spelling difficult words, distinguishing between homophones, punctuation, etc. A few of the mnemonics used made no sense to me, but maybe they would to a 10 year old.

[Kendra Brinker · Rating 3 out of 5]

That it was a petty good way to remember stuff. I think that Chris Stevens did a good job and i hope he makes a new one. Why its so good is because just think in a class room they tech you but its not fun but in this book it techs you but in a funner way. Its just fun to read and i think you should read it you'll love it.

[Deborah-Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple book relaying easy ways to remember historical, geographical, mathematical and linguistic facts. It is a fun and fast-paced read, but written at a rather elementary level. Also, I think sometimes the tips and tricks presented are more complicated than simply remembering the facts straight out.

[Ever · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute diversion, with ways to remember everything from sentence structure and basic math to planets and musical notes. Some of the mneumonics are a little far-fetched (harder to remember than the thing itself), but most are pretty clever.

[reading is my hustle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet, little book of tricks and tips to help school-age children remember everything: punctuation & grammar rules, history dates, times tables, math formulas, history facts, and even survival techniques. A great gift!

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I more skimmed this book then read it per say, but it was neat with the little memory tricks, some of them I remember having heard before and others new to me. It covers a variety of subjects from grammar to science.

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a handy little book. I'm very fond of mnemonics of all kinds and for an elementary school student in particular, I would think this would be most useful. Lots of spelling and grammar and math memory tips. Good thing for most teachers, too, and useful to have in classrooms.

[Ernnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Main reason why I pick this book in my school's library due to the owl and a bit of brown here and there.

Good book. Simple. It teaches us how to remember certain things in a quick way. Good for US kids. (Most of the informations there are US related).

[Ted94597]

Heard about this book today (Jan. 6th) on NPR's "All Things Considered". Sounds like a good read, especially for someone with as bad a memory as me.