Once in a Blue Moon

Frances Emery is an editor and writer living in Nepean, Ontario.

If you have ever wondered about the old saws we all use every day
without a second thought, here is a book that will give you a chuckle as
you read it to your little ones. But you will probably find yourself
having to think hard to explain why Aunt Floydie is “old as the
hills” and “fit as a fiddle”; her friend the mailman “full of
beans”; the countess “dressed to the nines”; or the mayor “in a
pickle”!

This 28-page book is packed with such similes, metaphors, and other
figures of speech, accompanied by zany and colorful illustrations of the
four (more or less) human characters and a collection of cheerful
animals (among others, a pig in a black bow tie, with whom the countess
lives high off the hog; three rats in a sack race; and the cows coming
home).

This is a book to be read aloud. At least as much time again will be
needed to explain the subtleties of the puns and jokes that are hidden
in both text and pictures. It is a child’s book, but written for the
pleasure of the adult reader too. Our resident almost–4-year-old
enjoyed it, puzzled over the mysteries (Why did the major have his foot
in his mouth?), and wanted to hear it all over again.