Punctuation can be ... puzzling. Do you ever exclaim, "I can't figure out where to put quotation marks!"? Don't worry — even Jenny Whitehead learned a thing or two working on her new picture book, "Punctuation Celebration."

Whitehead is a writer-illustrator ("Lunch Box Mail and Other Poems"), but for "Punctuation Celebration" (Henry Holt, $17.95) she lost a hyphen to illustrate retired kindergarten teacher Elsa Knight Bruno's poems. Each punctuation mark gets two poems, actually: one describing what it does and another showing how it's used.

Whitehead also illustrates cards for Hallmark and its property Sunrise Greetings, and her art can be found on items at Eclectics in Kansas City, Mo.

Q. What's your own favorite punctuation mark?

A. The quotation mark. I like what's in between. Even though you might not be able to meet a famous person or a historical figure, you can get to know what they're like through their quotations. And from a kid's point of view, books that have a lot of conversation in them are easier and more fun to read.

Q. Which punctuation mark is most fun to draw?

A. The ellipses ... because they were like three buddies. I have them interacting in the book.

Q. Which punctuation mark is the most misunderstood?

A. The dash and the hyphen often get confused. Visually, the — (dash) is just a little longer than the — (hyphen). And, of course, the dash can work a little bit like parentheses, too. I wish somebody would have been a little more creative in constructing one or the other.

Q. I like semicolons; I had an editor once who banned them. Are semicolons in the book?

A. Definitely. I know how to use a semicolon correctly now. You'd think, as a writer, I'd have gotten that down a lot sooner. Basically, a semicolon separates two sentences that relate to one another. Some people would argue just to put a period and capitalize the next letter.

Q. You illustrated this book, but you're a poet, too. Has punctuation ever inspired you to write a poem?

A. In my book "Lunch Box Mail" there's a poem called "Carrots? No, Thank You!" It uses almost every punctuation mark, but with special emphasis on the exclamation point. I did that because I wanted kids to yell out "Rutabaga! Rutabaga! Rutabaga!" when they read it, to emphasize how cool the word sounds. (When I visit schools) I have the kids yell it ... It just feels rebellious!