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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
A darling read for language enthusiasts and animal lovers. The illustrations add to the charm of the voice who describes the various groupings.
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Beautiful illustrations, plus a bit of history, environmental facts, and the wonderful use of language.
#BookBingoNW2018 #environment
#BookBingoNW2018 #environment
I found out about this book thanks to a friend here and since I'm a linguist and love everything quirky about languages (palindromes, puns, etc), I also enjoy all the collective nouns of the animal kingdom. One of my personal favourites has always been "a murder of crows" though thanks to this book I now know that people have been very inventive with the names of other animal groupings as well. So of course I needed to have this book.
It is divided into the chapters "land", "air", and "water".
What I didn't expect but enjoyed very much was all the historical info about how the nouns came to be as well as some cultural context. Like in the example below:
The illustrations, too, of course. I got a taste of Matt Sewell's art in his other book I read yesterday and I really like his style. In this case it brought home the quirkiness of the labels we give animal groups and was the perfect combination.
It is divided into the chapters "land", "air", and "water".
What I didn't expect but enjoyed very much was all the historical info about how the nouns came to be as well as some cultural context. Like in the example below:
The illustrations, too, of course. I got a taste of Matt Sewell's art in his other book I read yesterday and I really like his style. In this case it brought home the quirkiness of the labels we give animal groups and was the perfect combination.
funny
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Cute and short. Very UK centric for obvious reasons. Would like to see him tackle different regions of the world. It is a collection of illustrations with descriptions of the collective noun for the animal on the page.
http://pussreboots.com/blog/2019/comments_11/charm_of_goldfinches.html
http://pussreboots.com/blog/2019/comments_11/charm_of_goldfinches.html
I feel a bit mean with this rating because the book achieves what it sets out to do perfectly well; with some interesting facts peppered throughout and Sewell's art being very cute and charming. Having read a fair few nature/art books however, I've already come across both writing and artistic styles that I personally prefer.
Humans have always had a natural desire to collect and group things together. It works well for domesticated animals, where people are used to talking about a herd of cows, or a flock of sheep. But how do you collate wild animals and birds? Should they all be flocks and herds? Thankfully human imagination has gone to work on this and come up with a whole host of rich and interesting names for all species of animals.
Matt Sewell has collected together all the collective nouns for all manner of animals who inhabit land, sea and air. As well as the titled, A Charm of Goldfinches and the well-known Murder of Crows he introduces to us the less common quarrel of sparrows, a quiver of cobras, a harem of seals and deceit of lapwings. Alongside each collective noun is a delightful watercolour of the animals and a little explanation of the origins of the noun.
I really liked this enchanting little book with its colourful bold artwork and Sewell’s charming prose but if there was one minor flaw was it too brief.
Matt Sewell has collected together all the collective nouns for all manner of animals who inhabit land, sea and air. As well as the titled, A Charm of Goldfinches and the well-known Murder of Crows he introduces to us the less common quarrel of sparrows, a quiver of cobras, a harem of seals and deceit of lapwings. Alongside each collective noun is a delightful watercolour of the animals and a little explanation of the origins of the noun.
I really liked this enchanting little book with its colourful bold artwork and Sewell’s charming prose but if there was one minor flaw was it too brief.
This is a lovely book, full of amazing watercolours of land/air/water animals, I recommend the paper version over the electronic version as you'll see the full affect of the paintings which are spread over two pages.
With each collection of animals mentioned you get some info on how the collective name was first created, you get info on the animals themselves, an idea of how many species and a nice big helping of Matt Sewell's humour. Here is a sample of him describing Buntings:
"There are many different kinds of buntings around the world and they are all as cute as a baby turtle's birthday party."
I was quite surprised how many of these I already knew, but there were still plenty of new ones to learn, so this is a great source of info for those who take part in pub quizzes. A wonderful book that I highly recommend.
With each collection of animals mentioned you get some info on how the collective name was first created, you get info on the animals themselves, an idea of how many species and a nice big helping of Matt Sewell's humour. Here is a sample of him describing Buntings:
"There are many different kinds of buntings around the world and they are all as cute as a baby turtle's birthday party."
I was quite surprised how many of these I already knew, but there were still plenty of new ones to learn, so this is a great source of info for those who take part in pub quizzes. A wonderful book that I highly recommend.