You're Pulling My Leg!

December 1, 2015
From "lamebrain" to "feet of clay," a heaping handful of English idioms, similes, metaphors, and other colorful turns of phrase. Using Street's There's a Frog in My Throat! 440 Animal Sayings a Little Bird Told Me (2003, illustrated by Loreen Leedy) as a model, Street and Brace group their entries by body part and pair each to a literal-minded alternative or explanation: "She knit her brows. She frowned in concentration"; "I'm hip. I know what you mean." Brace jumps up the humor with spreads of demonstrative cartoon figures--including animals, animate internal organs, and even zombie bunnies--whose actions and comments are intended to further clarify the meanings. And they usually do, though the vomiting ticker by "heartsick" misses the boat, and having a lad shout "Holy cuss!" next to "potty mouth" is a yellow-bellied decision. If a few miscast homophones like "back to the drawing board" and "head of lettuce" tiptoe in, there are still lips zipped, buttoned, and sealed; fingers crossed, pointed, butter, light, and worked to the bone; hearts whole, half, soft and hard, black, cold, gold, and more to enrich both spoken and written tongues. Not to mention zombie bunnies biting off heads and picking brains. Knee-slappers on every page for tenderfoot readers and writers. (index) (Informational picture book. 6-9)

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March 1, 2016

Gr 2-5-An impressive collection of figures of speech, this book is divided into sections that cover different body parts ("All Ears," "A Pain in the Neck"). Each page is filled with tons of expressions and their definitions, while Brace's illustrations provide hilarious literal interpretations, with human and animal cartoon characters offering funny asides in speech bubbles. For instance, the term eye candy is accompanied by an image of a girl with bonbons for eyes. In humor, tone, and overall appearance, the book is reminiscent of Laurie Keller titles such as The Scrambled States of America (1998) and Open Wide: Tooth School Inside (2000, both Holt). Some will undoubtedly pore over this busy volume, deriving hours of pleasure from the rich content and discovering new things each time they pick it up. However, because many elementary students are unfamiliar with these expressions, the audience of this book may be limited. VERDICT Most likely to appeal to more sophisticated readers.-Gloria Koster, West School, New Canaan, CT

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2016
Grades 2-4 From over your head to soles of your feet, English idiomatic expressions relating to body parts color our descriptive language about emotions, situations, and relationships to ourselves, each other, and the world. Street and Brace offer an entertaining tour, anatomical region by anatomical region, with page spreads filled with colorful spot illustrations featuring cartoon creatures acting out idioms. A few miss the mark, but that just makes the discussion possibilities broader. Browsers drawn in by the tumbling bugs, monsters, animals, and anthropomorphic hearts and livers will stay for the linguistic exploration, and young word-lovers can giggle over seeing some common expressions depicted in concrete terms, such as a thumb flipping pages (thumb through a book) or a boy with dollar bills emerging from his nostrils (paid through the nose). The index is arranged by body part, which makes this worthy of a place in the nonfiction section of elementary-school libraries and classrooms, though casual reading from head to toe is likely, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)