Birds of a Feather: A book of idioms and silly pictures by Vanita Oelschlager and illustrated by Robin Hegan, non-fiction picture book, published by Vanita Books in 2009.

Learn the meaning of some common idioms from the English language in this fun book for children. Each page contains one idiom, accompanied by a lovely and silly illustration. This is a great way to introduce idioms to kids of all ages.

The pictures were definitely my favourite part of this book. All of them were appropriate for the idiom it was illustrating, and they were all quite funny. They showed the literal meaning of each one, while the text explained the metaphorical meaning. I liked the ‘raining cats and dogs’ illustration best. Here ‘bright eyed and bushy tailed’ was depicted as being like a raccoon, yet this phrase has always made me think of possums!

The meaning of each idiom was explained and used in a simple sentence to demonstrate its usage. This text was small and upside down in the corner of the illustration. I didn’t like this, and I’m not sure why it was done this way. It just made it harder to read in a setting where it wasn’t answering a question, and I didn’t think it warranted being upside down.

Overall Birds of a Feather was quite good, and I think it would be suitable to share with pre-schoolers and primary school students.

*I obtained this book as a digital copy from Netgalley. I did not receive any other remuneration, and this is an honest review composed entirely of my own opinions.