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35 reviews for:
A Charm of Goldfinches and Other Wild Gatherings: Quirky Collective Nouns of the Animal Kingdom
Matt Sewell
4.06 AVERAGE
35 reviews for:
A Charm of Goldfinches and Other Wild Gatherings: Quirky Collective Nouns of the Animal Kingdom
Matt Sewell
4.06 AVERAGE
I don't think I've read a book as charming as this. Sewell's write ups of each collective noun were witty and filled with cute "did you know?" bits, its so memorable. My favourite is "A Harem of Seals".
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
It’s adorable, Mark Sewells artwork is so cute. I now must collect all of his work. The spottings in the back is a wonderful idea I must fill in.
A beautiful read for naturalists and linguists alike.
A charming little book about the way to refer to groups of certain types of animals. The illustrations alone are delightful.
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
A lovely book which describes and discusses a range of wonderful animals from the author's point of view. You learn something, and enjoy Matt's sense of humour, as well as his endearing simplistic, child-like, yet accurate illustrations.
First off, these are very lovely illustrations. All the animals are quite cute, especially the birbs—I’ll have to look into some of his other books on birbs because !!BIRBS!
The informative blurbs, however, were just not that informative. I did enjoy Sewell’s organic style and how he incorporated personal vignettes and stories about the animal in question, while also providing some basic information about the animal and their group. But it was just too hit and miss in terms of how informative it was in regards to “how did that group of animals get that name?” I did highlight some snippets of info, but I wasn’t blown away with how much I learned. It seemed like Sewell could have published this without the vignettes and just his illustrations.
There were some instances where multiple other group names were mentioned in the text, some of which were much more interesting than the header entry. For example, it’s a “colony of squirrels” but the author also mentioned names like “scurry” and “drey”—both much quirkier and more indicative of a unique species.
While there are some cultural references that they might not get, I would actually recommend this book for middle schoolers. The illustrations are catchy and the information is at a level that would be perfect for sparking a tween’s interest to know more. I probably would have enjoyed this much more myself if I’d read it as a middle schooler.
I definitely would love to check out some of Sewell’s other books, if only for the illustrations, which are adorably lovely.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy to review!
(Cross posted on my blog.)
The informative blurbs, however, were just not that informative. I did enjoy Sewell’s organic style and how he incorporated personal vignettes and stories about the animal in question, while also providing some basic information about the animal and their group. But it was just too hit and miss in terms of how informative it was in regards to “how did that group of animals get that name?” I did highlight some snippets of info, but I wasn’t blown away with how much I learned. It seemed like Sewell could have published this without the vignettes and just his illustrations.
There were some instances where multiple other group names were mentioned in the text, some of which were much more interesting than the header entry. For example, it’s a “colony of squirrels” but the author also mentioned names like “scurry” and “drey”—both much quirkier and more indicative of a unique species.
While there are some cultural references that they might not get, I would actually recommend this book for middle schoolers. The illustrations are catchy and the information is at a level that would be perfect for sparking a tween’s interest to know more. I probably would have enjoyed this much more myself if I’d read it as a middle schooler.
I definitely would love to check out some of Sewell’s other books, if only for the illustrations, which are adorably lovely.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy to review!
(Cross posted on my blog.)
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
Really fun read, followed with the cutest illustrations! A few of these I found myself arguing with because I knew some of these birds/animals by other collective nouns, Sewell does at least say in the parrot section why he chose company over pandemonium so understandable
This is both interesting and very playfully written. With cute illustrations to boot! Very enjoyable.