I just got an email from the quality department at Amazon Kindle that a reader complained about a misspelling in Jokes By Kids: Volume 1. Ugh… I hate typos! Really. That’s why each edition of Jokes By Kids has been read by me and TWO PAID EDITORS! That’s three sets of eyes looking for typos.

So, imagine my surprise when I come to actual complaint part of the email. Here it goes:

Potential errors have been identified: for example, “on their howlidays!” should be “on their holidays!” (loc. 706).

Gee, that rung a bell. It was a joke about ghosts howling on some holiday. So I looked it up, and here’s the joke:

Why are ghosts loudest in the summer?
Because they are on their howlidays!
From Ashleigh, age 9, from Glasgow, Scotland

Now, I’m not critical of the grownup that didn’t get the joke. We’ve all been there. Right? But complaining to Amazon? I was just flabbergasted.

So, getting back to grammar, I was thinking maybe “howlidays” should have been quoted because it’s a made-up word. But I can’t seem to find a reference for this online. So, my grammar peeps. What say you? Should the punchline have been written, “Because they are on their ‘howlidays!'”