Cover Image: Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather

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Member Reviews

5 Stars. What another beautiful, educational book by Vanita Oelschlager with colorful, humorous illustrations by Robin Hegan explaining idioms in a joyful way to your child. This author makes learning fun. Highly recommend! Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ebook for review.

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This is a fun, beautifully illustrated book which explains the meanings brhind many common phrases used every day ... like "raining cats and dogs" and "wild goose chase". It is best to read tbis book while sitting across from kids. The definitions are in smaller print and face the opposite direction to the pictures and captions. My kids (3 and 6) got a kick out of the images and silly terms, some of which thry were familiar with and some were new to them.

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I really admire Vanita Oelschlager's works, as she makes learning so interesting through all of her picture books.
This one is a great way to teach children idioms. Every page has an idiom not only listed, but also illustrated by taking its meaning literally. The illustrations are cute and hilarious, even more so, because they all feature animals/birds.
The actual meaning of the idiom, along with its usage in a sentence is written at the bottom of each page, inverted, and in tiny lettering, so that it can be referred to only when you really try to read it, and wouldn't interfere with teaching these idioms to children.

The book ends with a super cool explanation of how a particular idiom originated, and encourages readers to find the origins of other idioms, as the words that are used in an idiom, seldom mean what is said in the literal sense, but at the same time, are not a random bunch of words put together.
Another thing at the very end of the book is an illustrated version of the idiom "Like two peas in a pod". This is the only one that does not feature an animal/bird, but the sentence that is used to illustrate the example says that the author and illustrator are like two peas in a pod, in that they both like to make books for children to enjoy, which I thought was just really sweet and adorable! ♥

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If you loved "Chocolate Moose", then you will love Birds of a Feather. It teaches children and even adults (hey you can't know everything) a fun little way of understanding the funny words or sayings that we say every day in our lives. The illustrations were amazing. The illustrator is a true artist, and I enjoyed seeing the pictures paired with the phrases. My kiddos gave it four thumbs up!

Ages 9 and 5

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This book is a good introduction to idioms, with funny (and very literal) illustrations, such as 'raining cats and dogs'. Although some children will be able to see the funny side and make sense of the humour here, I think for others it will go over their heads. The illustrations are great thought - full double-page spreads with nice big text, with much smaller text using the idioms in a sentence. I am not sure why this small text needs to be upside down, but it's helpful to put the idioms into context. I think this book will encourage questions and lots of laughter, which is great.

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If you have not already seen the picture book Birds of a Feather, I am going to let the cat out of the bag and tell you that Vanita Oelschlager and Robin Hegan created a delightful take on idioms with this book.

Children will be bright eyed and bushy tailed as they turn each page of these silly sayings.

Each word and phrase is matched with an adorably hilarious illustration, like, Ants in your pants. And when the book is flipped upside down, the hidden meaning of the idiom and usuage in a sentence is readable.

This is a perfectly entertaining book for children to be as snug as a bug in the rug at story time. It is also an excellent resource for teachers to use in a classroom to teach children about word play while allowing them to have fun learning about these common expressions.

I got Goosebumps when I viewed the Bull in a china shop page. This book, I do highly recommend.
I reviewed it for Net Galley

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This is a wonderful book helping young children to understand idioms. The illustrations are comical but at the bottom of each picture is an explanation of what the phrase really means. Birds of a Feather would also be excellent for children or adults with developmental delays and ESL students. This should be on the shelf of every special education classroom!

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This book is super cute! I've learned that kids struggle so much with idioms, but more than that, people learning English as a second language also get confused! This is a book I would give to an ESL student to help them understand better idioms. I loved the illustrations that went along with it. Loved it!

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If I could give this book more than five stars I would. The illustrations were funny and well done. Each idiom was explained in a way that children could understand. I'll definitely be buying this book for me and my friends. Parents and children alike will love this book.

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It's a cute book, but is for children 3 or under or older kids just learning idioms, I can see how this could have helped my 9 year old when she was learning about them and she would have loved it.

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This was a cute book of idioms. Beautifully illustrated, informative and fun to read. Highly recommended for kids.

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Vanita continues to shine in her latest work that I plan to implement in my class. Always awe-struck by her books.

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We never think about idioms or how they sound to others who may not know the meaning, until we are asked--or they are pointed out. When I studied to be an ESL teacher the reality of idioms was the most striking thing--I really hadn't ever considered them. Since realizing how hard idioms were to explain (because of the cultural implications behind them) I have begun to try to remove them from speech as much as possible while speaking with an English Language Learner.

Something I still had not considered is the process of learning the idioms of your native language, we don't all wake up one morning knowing what "birds of a feather flock together" means. We don't have any background at that point. With that in mind, I appreciate what Oelschlager has tried to do.

I wish, though, that the book had been more of a story. Yes, the phrases are funny but I felt like we were running through large flashcards more than reading a book. The illustrations are wonderful and each really does a great job at bringing the phrases to life.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a unbiased review.

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Clever book to help children see and understand idioms. Silly illustrations accompany the language, but I think the book had greater potential to explain idioms. Could be a great book to use in a language arts course.

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Birds of a Feather is a book of idioms for children, complete with darling illustrations and explanations of idioms such as 'bring home the bacon' are included. As an adult, this book gave me a refresher course on the meaning of an idiom. I could definitely see this being a popular library book for kids!

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This was a great idea of a book. I enjoyed it greatly. My six year old did not enjoy it and found it slightly boring.

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Such a fun idea: literal illustrations of common idioms that the author then explains. I love the idea, but I think this book could be so much more. While I understand and appreciate the author's desire to let the silly pictures take center stage, the small and upside down word layout is very difficult to read. I also wish more information was supplied to take this book from "cute" to a resource. For example, at the end of the book, the author includes a mini history lesson about the source of one of her idioms. It is both kid-friendly and chock-full of info that most books don't supply. I would have loved to see this repeated for each idiom throughout the book! What a missed opportunity!

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Children who are learning to read and becoming more aware of language are frequently puzzled by colloquial American English (or British English) expressions. This is doubly so for children on the autism spectrum, whose literal thinking can conjure up images that mess with logic. This book provides the child reader with a number of common English expressions, charmingly illustrated, along with an explanation and example of the actual use of the phrase (turn the book upside down for meaning and usage). I just wished for this price point that the book was a bit longer.

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