MONKEY BUSINESS by Wallace Edwards

I have a pretty large collection of books that have some type of word play in them. I have always had a few baskets of books in my classroom that housed books that just have fun with words. My friend Meredith brought me this new one for a recent trip. (She is always good about finding books I don't know!) I am so excited to add this one to my collection.

MONKEY BUSINESS by Wallace Edwards is a great book of idioms. I love to use picture books with kids that help readers understand the meaning of a literary term such as "idiom". Idiom is defined on the first page of the book as "a group of words whose meaning cannot be understood from the meaning of the individual words; an expression peculiar to a specific language, that cannot be translated literally." The book then continues on with various idioms in the context of a sentence. The gorgeous illustrations show the meaning of the idiom and both the sentence and the illustration helps the reader infer the meaning of the specific idiom. One of my favorites is "Phil had no formal musical training, so he learned to play by ear." The accompanying illustration shows an adorable dog playign the instrument with his ears.

This is a new-to-me book even though it was published in 2004. According to Amazon, it is due out in paperback this month! A perfect addition to my word-play basket.