I enjoyed this. My only complaint is that it could’ve been longer! Will look out for more by this author.

Charming and informative, it's sure to be another best selling stocking filler this christmas from Matt Sewell.

A book with amazing illustrations that will teach you more than you think.

Humans have always had a natural desire to collect and group things together. It works well for domesticated animals, where people are used to talking about a herd of cows, or a flock of sheep. But how do you collate wild animals and birds? Should they all be flocks and herds? Thankfully human imagination has gone to work on this and come up with a whole host of rich and interesting names for all species of animals.

Matt Sewell has collected together all the collective nouns for all manner of animals who inhabit land, sea and air. As well as the titled, A Charm of Goldfinches and the well-known Murder of Crows he introduces to us the less common quarrel of sparrows, a quiver of cobras, a harem of seals and deceit of lapwings. Alongside each collective noun is a delightful watercolour of the animals and a little explanation of the origins of the noun.

I really liked this enchanting little book with its colourful bold artwork and Sewell’s charming prose but if there was one minor flaw was it too brief.

This is a charming book, goldfinches or otherwise. And yes, it is quirky too. I originally chose it thinking it might be something I would want to get for my nieces: informative but fun and with cute artwork.

But this is not a book for children. It's really a book for adults dressed up in a cute children's package. Is it informative? Yes. But it's not really meant to be all important. It's meant to be fun and silly before anything else. The analogies, the allusions, the word choices are all extremely adult and some of the allusions were in fact slightly older than my own age group.

I think this book would have done better if it had settled on an audience and then gone for it. It has a sort of split personality and never really sheds that. While, I did like learning some of the terms, I found myself mostly struggling through this book because it felt so completely repetitive. I think this is best used as a coffee table book and for a conversation starter.

I received a free electronic copy of this collection from Netgalley, Matt Sewell, and Ebury Digital in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for sharing your hard work with me.

This is a delightful book for folks of any age. My husband and I were discussing the fact that at one time in our lives we knew many of these collective nouns but have over the years lost that connection. Many of these however were new to us both. I love the fact that only a collection of male peacocks are an ostentation. If the less majestic peahens are included it would become a muster of peafowl. More than one raven becomes an Unkindness. I love ravens and have many in my neck of the woods - Chihuahuan Ravens for the most part - but you rarely ever see only one. Mostly they travel in pairs, and mate for life. Probably one on it's own should be the Unkindness....

The artwork in this guide is also exceptional. This is truly a book to awaken interest in the young and nostalgia in us older folk.

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I love this book. So much so that I have immediately purchased it in print. A glorious journey through the animal kingdom with interest-piquing facts and wonderful sketches along the way. An absolute must have for any animal or book lover.

This is a charming, whimsical book and I loved everything from the colorful paintings to the playful descriptions to the names for different groups of birds, animals, and sea creatures. I am certain I'll read this book many times, just because it always put a smile on my face!

Review of A Charm of Goldfinches and Other Wild Gatherings by Matt Sewell

This is a lovely book, full of amazing watercolours of land/air/water animals, I recommend the paper version over the electronic version as you'll see the full affect of the paintings which are spread over two pages.

With each collection of animals mentioned you get some info on how the collective name was first created, you get info on the animals themselves, an idea of how many species and a nice big helping of Matt Sewell's humour. Here is a sample of him describing Buntings:

"There are many different kinds of buntings around the world and they are all as cute as a baby turtle's birthday party."

I was quite surprised how many of these I already knew, but there were still plenty of new ones to learn, so this is a great source of info for those who take part in pub quizzes. A wonderful book that I highly recommend.

I am a massive fan of the natural world and was delighted to be able to get my hands on a copy of this book. I thought that the images used were beautful, the detail was lovely and I wouldn't mind having them as paintings! The whole book was lovely to read and I'd definately recommend it, easy to read and you can pick it up and put it down with ease as the chapters for the different species are a few pages each. 5 stars from me.

This is an adorable book that gathers collective nouns of the animal kingdom and pairs them with Sewell’s art. While short, it is a fun and whimsical book that would make a cute gift.

What a lovely little book. Superb illustratiins and packed full of interesting facts. I loved learning the collective nouns of groups of animals - often so descriptively apt such as "a shiver of sharks". Great to dip into over and over again and to find something interesting each time.

First off, these are very lovely illustrations. All the animals are quite cute, especially the birbs—I’ll have to look into some of his other books on birbs because !!BIRBS!

The informative blurbs, however, were just not that informative. I did enjoy Sewell’s organic style and how he incorporated personal vignettes and stories about the animal in question, while also providing some basic information about the animal and their group. But it was just too hit and miss in terms of how informative it was in regards to “how did that group of animals get that name?” I did highlight some snippets of info, but I wasn’t blown away with how much I learned. It seemed like Sewell could have published this without the vignettes and just his illustrations.

There were some instances where multiple other group names were mentioned in the text, some of which were much more interesting than the header entry. For example, it’s a “colony of squirrels” but the author also mentioned names like “scurry” and “drey”—both much quirkier and more indicative of a unique species.

While there are some cultural references that they might not get, I would actually recommend this book for middle schoolers. The illustrations are catchy and the information is at a level that would be perfect for sparking a tween’s interest to know more. I probably would have enjoyed this much more myself if I’d read it as a middle schooler.

I definitely would love to check out some of Sewell's other books, if only for the illustrations, which are adorably lovely.

I didn't realize until I got this book from Netgalley that I'd read and reviewed another one of Matt Sewell's books, Owls: Our Most Enchanting Bird. This follows a similar format to that one, and to a bunch of other Sewell books. This one in particular takes a look at the fun and amusing names there are for groups of different kinds of animals, for example, a murder of crows or a parliament of owls, and it also has some descriptions and thoughts about the names and animals.

I felt pretty much the same about this book as that one: it's a whimsical book with cute illustrations. While it does have some scientific information about the animals it portrays, I wouldn't take most of it to the bank. It's not meant to be an informational book, really.

I do like the way Sewell illustrates the eyes of some of the animals. Eyes and facial expressions are one of the hardest things to illustrate (as well as human hands!), in my opinion, and I think he does a good job. For example, look at these images of cute, innocent (yeah right!) starlings versus the vultures that are definitely up to something.

Overall, it's a cute book but not something I'd buy myself.

Beautiful illustrations and well written. Information is engrossing and originally presented in an easy to relate to manner.

Nice illustrations but little else

I liked the book based largely on the beautiful illustrations. While I also liked the explanations of how these groupings of animals got their names, I also would have enjoyed reading more detail about the animals. I do think that the book would make a nice gift for people into nature.

I love animals and birds,I enjoy watching them,and this book was fun to read it gives a different insite to them,I will be watching them differently from now on,a enjoyable read