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It Figures!: Fun Figures of Speech
An introduction to six common figures of speech -- metaphors, similes, onomatopoeia, personification, alliteration, and hyperbole -- with guidelines for their use and numerous illustrative examples.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 29, 2016
Just Right, and Fun
This book promises to help make your writing "clear, vivid, interesting, and dramatic". Well, you could say the same thing about the book itself.
The g'son asked one day how you could have "a handful of scientists". He's kind of a literal sort. We talked about figures of speech, and even about things like synecdoche, where baseball pitchers are "arms" and cars are "wheels". (And don't worry, I didn't actually use the word "synecdoche" even though I think it's a totally cool word.) Anyway, that got me looking around for a neat elementary level guide to some basic figures of speech. The pickings were pretty slim but even if there were a zillion choices this book would be toward the top of the list.
We cover simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, alliteration, hyperbole, and personification. I would have been happy with the first two, but the other four go down pretty easily, so that's fine. Here's the best part - the book is informative, clear and extremely good-humored. Examples are crisp and are drawn from a wide range of sources, including classic works.
Sometimes the author is silly and sometimes he goes for funny, but it's never a stretch or a forced humor or that stupid/phony "Dummies..." book humor. The book never feels like a text book. It's aimed much more to be like a friendly advice column for kids who want to punch up their talking and writing, who want to be able to write things that are interesting. So, it sometimes feels like a "how to ..." kind of book, which fit right in with the g'son's original interest.
The upshot is that this is tight, clear, cheerful and very useful without being at all threatening. I think of it as a "mood" sort of book that will get picked up and perused when the mood strikes, but that doesn't at all diminish its value. It also has some exercises of a sort, ( along the lines of "how would you add a snappy figure of speech to this sentence?"), and that's not a bad way to open up a little mini-lesson when the opportunity arises. However you care to use the book, though, it will come in handy. I thought this a very happy find.
This book promises to help make your writing "clear, vivid, interesting, and dramatic". Well, you could say the same thing about the book itself.
The g'son asked one day how you could have "a handful of scientists". He's kind of a literal sort. We talked about figures of speech, and even about things like synecdoche, where baseball pitchers are "arms" and cars are "wheels". (And don't worry, I didn't actually use the word "synecdoche" even though I think it's a totally cool word.) Anyway, that got me looking around for a neat elementary level guide to some basic figures of speech. The pickings were pretty slim but even if there were a zillion choices this book would be toward the top of the list.
We cover simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, alliteration, hyperbole, and personification. I would have been happy with the first two, but the other four go down pretty easily, so that's fine. Here's the best part - the book is informative, clear and extremely good-humored. Examples are crisp and are drawn from a wide range of sources, including classic works.
Sometimes the author is silly and sometimes he goes for funny, but it's never a stretch or a forced humor or that stupid/phony "Dummies..." book humor. The book never feels like a text book. It's aimed much more to be like a friendly advice column for kids who want to punch up their talking and writing, who want to be able to write things that are interesting. So, it sometimes feels like a "how to ..." kind of book, which fit right in with the g'son's original interest.
The upshot is that this is tight, clear, cheerful and very useful without being at all threatening. I think of it as a "mood" sort of book that will get picked up and perused when the mood strikes, but that doesn't at all diminish its value. It also has some exercises of a sort, ( along the lines of "how would you add a snappy figure of speech to this sentence?"), and that's not a bad way to open up a little mini-lesson when the opportunity arises. However you care to use the book, though, it will come in handy. I thought this a very happy find.
March 2, 2019
Kids learn better when it is fun.
April 18, 2020
Lovely little book of words!
A wonderful wicked book for budding writers. I had a whale of a moment diving into its deep sea of knowledge.
A wonderful wicked book for budding writers. I had a whale of a moment diving into its deep sea of knowledge.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews