Reading to a child from an early age is very important for their development, future academic, and even business success. Research shows that children who are being exposed to reading from an early age develop their cognitive abilities faster, show more interest in the environment, communicate better, learn faster, and this is directly related to their future success. Also, research shows that books greatly contribute to faster and more successful adoption and building of vocabulary in children as well as successful expression.
And yes, it is true that children start the process of language acquisition and learning from birth, but what do we do with more complex language structures? How to bring them closer to children in the most effective way?
The answer to that is hidden in the books like this one, which in a very interesting and witty way opens the world of idioms to children. The beautiful and colorful illustrations will immediately grab the attention of your little ones, while the upside-down explanation greatly forces children to focus and explore the illustration paying closer attention to details, thus providing them with an opportunity to be able to connect the image and the meaning of the words much more easily.
In addition to amazing illustrations and simple explanations, this book offers us the opportunity to encourage our little ones to give their ideas and examples of the use of idioms that are so effectively displayed in this beautiful and sweet picture book. I would have to agree that the portrayal of the police force is a bit offensive, but I would also have to say that children will not perceive it as such.
And to say that the book will be an excellent teaching aid for ESL learners is a simple understatement. The lively illustrations plus the simple, yet effective definitions will be of great value to every child learning English as a second language.
Yes, I am delighted by this engaging and fun storybook, filled with quirky illustrations and commonly used idioms and sayings. I would have to say that it will make an excellent addition to any preschool or family library.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book. This children’s book is quite cute! I really enjoyed the illustrations — they brought the storyline right to life.

The book contains clever and funny drawings to teach children about idioms.with upside-down writing in small letters to explain the meaning. This allows the child to re-examine the drawings multiple times. However, it is disappointing that there were only 20 pages. Although there are thousands of idioms, there could have been a few more examples, that the children could use in daily situations like a piece of cake or like riding a bike.

This is an adorable book about idioms. I love the fact that flamingos are featured, as they are my daughter's favorite. The illustrations in this book were lovely.

**I received and voluntarily read an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

A cute idea with nice illustrations. A good starter book for kids to teach them about idioms, but I would have liked a little more. I definitely think the definition page for idioms should be at the front of the book, not the back.

It loses a star for making the "Wild Goose Chase" police officers pigs, as that terminology could be seen as incredibly offensive, especially in today's political environment.

I received an electronic copy from VanitaBooks, LLC through NetGalley.
Oelschlager takes readers through a variety of idioms illustrated as they sound. She provides the real definition and a sample sentence in upside down small print on each page. Readers can offer their own ideas on the meaning before reading the real definitions. Great read aloud. The pictures are brightly colored and show the way each idiom would look at face value. Definition of an idiom included at the end.

Vanita is at it again with a charming book teaching children about the idiosyncrasies of the English language. This time children will learn about idioms by viewing silly and vibrant illustrations.

My 5 year old grandson really enjoyed this book. The illustrations are wonderful and the idioms really interesting. He talked about this throughout dinner and started asking everyone if they knew what some of the phrases meant.

Birds of a Feather is a very cute children’s book. Birds of a Feather explains idioms to children. The illustrations are excellent and demonstrate the idiom. Upside the idiom is explained in writing.

I recommend this book for children.

Thank you NetGalley and Vanita Books, LLC for this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute a pleasant book. The illustrations were excellent. The life lesson needed. Children will love this book!

This was definitely a book that caught my eye as I enjoy idioms between other language tricks. The cover is taken from one of the illustrations and the wit that it portrays was a true winner to me.

The book was classic and witty while I loved it. The artwork was brightly colored while portraying the animal characters in a fun way that will put a new meaning to these well-known idioms.

Unfortunately the book did fall out of my higher favor when I came to the page that had a wild goose chase on it. The portrayal of police as pigs is an insult against the men and women who serve to keep us safe and although much younger readers wouldn't understand the offensiveness of it I would hope to keep such concepts away from them as much as possible until they are much older to grasp such concepts.

Otherwise I love the book's concept and presentation. The answer and/or history of the idiom is given to the reader at the bottom of the page on which it is given so that it can be a teaching point if educators should choose to use the book.

If it wasn't for the one point I would have given this book a much higher rating. It still is fun and educational while readers both old and young who like language will most definitely enjoy adding this book to their reading collection.

***I received access to a copy of this book in exchange for a free review.***

Super cute and fun when explaining idioms to grandchildren...the illustrations are super cute. Thank you NetGalley

This book would be excellent to use in ESL instruction. The text is simple and the illustrations are lively and engaging. ESL teachers are always looking for new and interesting books as they teach this very difficult subject. This book will be good for school and public libraries.

This is described as "A Book of Idioms and Silly Pictures" and it certainly is! It takes some phrases that are so commonly used that people don't even think about them anymore, and takes them quite literally, so the dog, for example, really is barking up the wrong tree and the cat is quite happy about that! Ants in your pants doesn't make anyone happy, and goosebumps are just embarrassing!

I've enjoyed nearly all of the Vanita Oelschlager books that I've read, so I was happy to see this one available for review and I didn't regret it. It was fun, engaging, amusingly illustrated, and goofy enough to be entertaining as well as a little bit educational. I commend it as a worthy read.

Birds of a Feather introduces children to the world of idioms. This is a cute book with good illustrations. I can see why kids would be drawn to it and how teacher could use it to help students understand the meaning of an idiom.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my review.

Cute! Cute! Cute!

A book full of idioms paired with ridiculous and quirky illustrations. My son had a blast with this book. I greatly appreciated that the book also supplied the explanation for each idiom.

Great book to accompany a young readers literature and English lessons.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A fun and a little bit silly book introducing the bizarre world of idioms. The illustrations are quirky and funny throughout.

This is a book is full of proverbs like "birds of a feather flock together" coupled with funny illustrations. the illustrations are fun and colorful. Something that was odd to me at first is when the pages explains the proverbs and they are upside down and small so it was difficult to read. As a preschool worker I know that this is how child think and the book give them illustration of funny things they hear.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this story and offer my opinion.

Birds of a Feather could be used in an early childhood classroom for an introduction into figurative language and idioms. It shows a variety of idioms given in context. The illustrations match with the literal meaning of the words and would lead themselves well to a group discussion.

One small dislike of the story was that the definition of what an idiom is doesn't come until the end of the story. I think it would have been better placed at the beginning. Another would be that the true meaning of the idiom was written upside down so if you are using the book within a small group, the students will constantly be flipping the book over and that may get distracting.

Overall, a good addition to an elementary classroom discussing figurative language.

Birds of a Feather was a fun and interactive children's book designed to help kids understand common and funny idioms in the English language. English is an extremely complex and difficult language, even for those who have spoken it their entire lives. This book did a great job of showing how when used in different contexts, the same words can have very different meanings. The illustrations were well done and this would definitely be an enjoyable and silly activity with a child.