Monday, September 02, 2013

Figuratively speaking

Occasionally, JED come home with book lists from Scholastic. It allows us to order cheap paper back versions of kid books. It's mostly shooting blind; the books are either a hit or a miss. But sometimes I order one that is a gem.

A Chocolate Moose for Dinner is definitely a gem.

It's filled with words that have homophones that mean something very different. It's all wordplay and figurative language. And it's from a child's perspective; the child who struggles to make sense of their increasingly complicated world with whatever tools he has at his disposal.

And the hilarious results that ensue.


The twins got these ones and were in stitches; especially the image of the daddy in the toaster.


The pictures are in a vintage style and tickle me to no end, especially the gorilla (guerilla) war one and the praying (prey) on animals one.


Muffin has tried to make sense of it. The gorillas are shooting. They're shooting at people who are taking their bananas. JED don't really understand it all fully yet but they think the pictures are hilarious, even Muffin. I've tried to explain it to them but as with all jokes that you explain, it takes the funny out of it.


I'm keeping the book around till they are older to really use it fully. It's important they learn play on words and figurative speech. After all, Packrat and Evan's godpa are king of corny humour. On top of that, it was written by Fred Gywnne who was the part of the Munsters and played Frankenstein. It's important for cultural capital even if it's very western-centric. But for now, it's for Packrat and I to chuckle at.

Arms race. Hee hee.

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