Multicultural Children's Book Day

Icing on the Cake: Food Idioms

Written by Troon Harrison

Illustrated by Joyeeta Neogi

Published by Language Lizards

Review

Icing on the Cake is an introduction to English idioms that focus on food, such as "spill the beans," "use your noodle," and "two peas in a pod." It is offered in English or as a bilingual book with 9 different languages to choose from, including Hmong, Arabic, and Spanish. 

Before we began reading, T wanted to know, "What's an idiom?" I explained, then opened up to the first page, which had a very straightforward answer to that exact question. From there, we perused various food idioms; T was pleased to recognize three. "I know three of them. What do the others mean?" Reading answered that question easily, and the past several days have seen him using new idioms frequently. He's been talking about who is the big cheese at school, what makes the cat go bananas, and what the icing on the cake will be for his birthday celebration (that one he's using figuratively and literally). 

Icing on the Cake makes quirky language easy to comprehend. This picture book is intended for English learners but is also great for native speakers – I would have loved having it when reading The Phantom Tollbooth with my sixth graders! In addition to the idiom and its meaning, an example of usage is included. Illustrations show people from around the world in various traditional dress. We were excited to see a woman in Tracht (traditional German attire), which T immediately recognized as German (or Swiss German, based on her alpenhorn). 

Icing on the Cake is cool beans! ;)

Note: A review copy was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review on Multicultural Children's Book Day.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2021 (1/29/21) is in its 8^th year! This non - profit children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen; two diverse book - loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books and authors on the market while also working to get those book into the hands of young readers and educators. Eight years in, MCBD’s mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves continues. Read about our Mission & History HERE.

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