Out of the
BLUE a book of color idioms and silly pictures
written by Vanita Oelschlager illustrated by Robin Hegan
Show your true colors
If you show your true colors, you show what you are really like inside. When Susie kicked her dog, we saw her true colors.
White elephant
Something unusual or even special, but useless to you, is a white elephant. Bring all your junk on Saturday to our house for our white elephant sale.
A yellow-bellied person is a person who is not brave or shows no courage. I was yellow-bellied when I didn’t stand up for my brother when people were picking on him.
Yellow-bellied
Out of the
BLUE “ Idioms often confuse young children because they express sentiments apart from the words’ literal meanings. They can also become wonderful sources of verbal play, worlds of delight that mark a child’s passage into advanced literacy. “ Out of the Blue is the latest in Vanita Oelschlager’s series on idioms. It explores the meaning of these phrases through clever illustrations and often hilarious wordplay. “ Educators and parents can use this book, along with Birds of a Feather and Life is a Bowl Full of Cherries, as springboards in a child’s language learning process. They are excellent resources in any Language Arts curriculum. They can also be integrated into a creative writing program where children write their own interpretation of the idioms, then segue into writing their own idioms. As another creative activity, they can formulate and design their own illustrations depicting the meaning of the idiom. “ Out of the Blue is a joy to read and play with for readers and writers of all ages!” Cinda Dehner
National Board Certified Teacher Library Media Specialist Twinsburg City Schools Twinsburg, Ohio
$8.95
www.VanitaBooks.com