You're Pulling My Leg!: 400 Human-Body Sayings from Head to Toe

You're Pulling My Leg!: 400 Human-Body Sayings from Head to Toe — page 1
Dear Reader Do you have a green thumb Wait don’t look at your hands to see I meant Are you good at growing plants Green thumb is a saying Our English language is full of sayings strange ones wise ones and funny ones In this book I’ve collected hundreds of colorful sayings about the human body Most sayings like green thumb are idioms Idioms don’t make sense when you try to figure them out word by word Instead you have to know the meaning of the whole group of words It’s important to know common idioms so that you can understand what you read and hear Some sayings are similes such as Your feet are like ice This simile compares feet to ice and it means that your feet are very cold Similes include the word like or the word as Metaphors are also sayings that compare only without using like or as One metaphor is He wears his heart on his sleeve This saying compares a heart to feelings It means that he shows his feelings everyone can see he’s in love A proverb is a sentence that offers advice or wisdom Many hands make light work means that if a lot of people help the job will be easy Some sayings rhyme like Zip your lip Some have alliteration they repeat consonant sounds like half-hearted and lily-livered Other sayings repeat vowel sounds like lamebrain Many sayings exaggerate like She’s smiling from ear to ear Of course a smile can’t really go from one ear to the other The saying simply means that somebody’s smile is very very big I hope you’ll be smiling from ear to ear while you read this book Pat Street A NOTE FROM THE ILLUSTRATOR After Pat submitted her manuscript it was my job to dream up the scenes as well as writing the jokes and conversations Hopefully these additions not only make the phrases more fun but also give them greater context and meaning To use an idiom this book was hands down the most challenging project I’ve ever taken on And to use another idiom it’s with my whole heart that I thank Mary Cash for her brilliant editing and Pat Street Claire Counihan and everyone at Holiday House for their creativity and patience Eric Brace