Monkey Business

Written by: Wallace Edwards

First line: IDIOM: 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.

Why you should read this book: Each page provides a lovely and literal illustration of an idiomatic expression: a tiger crawls out of a carpet bag when the cat is let out of the bag, a bulldog eats hot dogs while musing on a dog-eat-dog world. The colorful, animal-themed illustrations are lovingly painted, with a monkey hidden on every page. Laugh out loud fun for anyone old enough to understand the discrepancy between words and meaning.

Why you shouldn’t read this book: You take everything literally.