SOLVED. Children's Picture Book. Idioms, exaggerated speech. Read around 1989-1996. [s]

[S B]

There was a children's picture book that was full of idioms. I owned this as a child, but it has been lost to time. It may have been a book purchased from Scholastic. I have searched their website to no avail.

I feel like it was not a terribly thick book, but unfortunately, I do not want to overly limit my search. It is unlikely the entire book is more than 75 pages.

The single most identifying feature I can say about the book is that it had drawings associated with every idiom.

The one I remember the most is a football player looking down at his coach holding a football (coach may be under an umbrella) and he is saying "Don't waste your breath on dying embers."

I have searched this phrase, and I keep coming up empty as well.

I read this sometime around 1st - 5th grade which for me would be roughly from 1989-1996 give or take a year/grade or so.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

Respectfully,
S.P.Burke

[Sirvantes]

The children's illustrated picture books of idioms I am most familiar with are two books by Fred Gwynne: The King Who Rained; and A Chocolate Moose for Dinner. However, I don't have copies in front of me to check for the illustration you describe.
The King Who Rained
A Chocolate Moose for Dinner

[bookel]

Results to check.
https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kw%...

[Daisy]

The Amelia Bedelia series was a bit like that.

[S B]

Thank you for the quick replies.

I went to my local library which unfortunately does not have either of these books. I'm going to try another library this weekend. I'll let you know!

I perused that list based on another post that ended up being about a dragon (thanks for trimming the list, I didn't do that the first time to not exclude anything, but it was rather laborious to go through).

There are a few books on the link that may possibly be contenders (based on the # of pages), but unfortunately, I cannot pull anything off google for many of them. I will try to run them down at the library as well.

I will check out Amelia Bedelia, as well. I have seen that pop up several times in my searches, but I am near certain that is not it though.

[S B]

I would like to thank everyone for all of the help so far. I think I have vectored in on the book that it MAY be. I recently ordered that book and I will let you all know when I receive it so that we can mark this as solved at that point.

I searched all of the resources that were provided and have been following other links and ideas that have been presented in other threads. This got me to two books.

"Why Do We Say That?" Compiled by Graham Donaldson and Sue Setterfield - this book had the theme that I was looking for, but the cartoons are not the right style.

"From the Horse's Mouth" by Ann and Dan Nevins appears VERY close to what I am looking for right now. The book is in black and white, but the dustcover matches my memory of this lost book precisely. I read through the whole book and unfortunately, what I was looking for is not in there.

This lead to more research, (looking for books by Ann and Dan) to which I could find very few. I finally decided to just search for each independently and I stumble upon a book by Dan from (I believe) 1976. It is called "A Word To The Wise." I have purchased two copies (just in case pages are missing) and, again, I'll let you all know when they arrive.

[bookel]

Worldcat.org is where I often search first but keywords would have to be in title or plot if they exist. Google Images has book covers, search title in quotes. Google Books has a custom year range but the results are often not helpful. Sometimes openlibrary.org has the book, free to borrow. LibraryThing.com or abebooks.com often have cover images or descriptions too. Searching google for reviews, eg. Title author kirkusreviews, or Bulletin Center Children's Books, or even a book search site like Loganberry, can bring up plot. I spent years searching for some of my books and it is a process of elimination amd time. Never give up.

[Emmy]

If you haven't found it yet, I would consider checking out some of the books by Alvin Schwartz. He has tons of silly books full of weird grammar tricks, turns of phrase, idioms, etc. It might be one of his. The first to come to mind is Flapdoodle: Pure Nonsense from American Folklore.

[S B]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

I have been searching for this book for years. The Goodreads community helped me vector in on it, and I am forever grateful. This book influenced me a great deal as a child. Upon rereading it, it is clear that impact has lasted a lifetime, to this point! It may be weird to get so excited about a children's book, but this one meant the world to me.

[bookel]

Cover: https://www.librarything.com/work/372641
Glad you found it! Perfectly normal to want to find childhood books remembered!