Raining Cats and Dogs

September 1, 2008
Gr 1-5-In this highly appropriate pairing of folk art and sayings, Moses explains many common idioms. A colorful definition (e.g., "Kick the bucket means: A sassy way of saying someone died"), a sample sentence, and one of Moses's old-fashioned Americana-style oil paintings accompany each phrase. The lesson is kept lighthearted through examples that play upon the literal meanings of each phrase, often to comedic effect. Cats and dogs literally rain down from the sky upon rosy-cheeked ladies with parasols and opera gloves. A brass-buttoned captain and his crew are left "high and dry" when a whale lifts their boat out of the water, and a toad marries his mate, "warts and all." One somewhat thorny image is the depiction of a shirtless African American surrounded by clothed white people. The delicate details of the illustrations will be best appreciated by independent readers. Old-timey souls, folk-art students, and new Americans seeking to understand our many interesting phrases will appreciate Moses's contribution to the collective American heritage."Jayne Damron, Farmington Community Library, MI"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2008
Grades K-3 This irreverent picture book takes a look at various well-known (and a few lesser-known) figures of speech that children may have noticed and puzzled over. Moses presents one or two idioms per page, along with a shortexplanation of their meaning, a sentence using it in context, and an illustration depicting a scene of the phrase taken literally. Operating on a shoestring is accompanied by a team of doctors cutting open a worried looking shoelace, and The last straw shows the losing straw crossing the finish line of a race. The pictures are cute, folksy, funny, and likely to stick in the minds of little ones whether or not they really grasp why it is these peculiar phrases exist. To that end, the book might have been better served by including explanations of the idioms origins, or even a note on what an idiom is instead of just jumping right in to the frivolity. In any case, this does show that taking an interest in language can be fun.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)