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    It Figures!: Fun Figures of Speech
    It Figures!: Fun Figures of Speech
    It Figures!: Fun Figures of Speech
    Ebook79 pages28 minutes

    It Figures!: Fun Figures of Speech

    By Marvin Terban and Giulio Maestro

    ()

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    About this ebook

    “Enjoyable and informative . . . Using this humorously presented book, children will truly improve their styles of writing” (School Library Journal).
     
    Writing “The road was bumpy” is okay . . . but isn’t it more fun to say “It felt like we were riding on square tires”?
     
    This lively guide shows kids how to make their writing more dramatic, more memorable, or just plain funnier—whether they’re writing for school or for creative expression. It explains six techniques:
     
    • Similes
    • Metaphors
    • Onomatopoeia
    • Alliteration
    • Hyperbole
    • Personification
     
    . . . and provides guidelines for their use, plenty of examples, and entertaining illustrations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateOct 18, 1993
    ISBN9780547346274
    It Figures!: Fun Figures of Speech
    Author

    Marvin Terban

    Marvin Terban's popular wordplay books for Clarion include IN A PICKLE AND OTHER FUNNY IDIOMS and TO HOT TO HOOT: FUNNY PALINDROME RIDDLES. He lives in New York City.

    Read more from Marvin Terban

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      Book preview

      It Figures! - Marvin Terban

      Clarion Books

      3 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016

      Text copyright © 1993 by Marvin Terban

      Illustrations copyright © 1993 by Giulio Maestro

      All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to trade.permissions@hmhco.com or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

      Clarion Books is an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

      hmhbooks.com

      The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

      Terban, Marvin.

      It figures! : fun figures of speech / by Marvin Terban ; illustrated by Giulio Maestro,

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references

      Summary: Introduces and explains common figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, personification, and hyperbole with guidelines for their use and illustrative examples.

      1. English language—Style—Juvenile literature. 2. Figures of speech—Juvenile literature. [1. English language—Style 2. Figures of speech.] I. Maestro, Giulio, ill. II. Title.

      PE1421.T45 1993

      808'.042—dc20 92-35529

      CIP AC

      ISBN 978-0-395-66591-6 paperback

      eISBN 978-0-547-34627-4

      v3.0419

      To my brothers-in-law,

      George Freedman and Lewis Youngman,

      who always cut fine figures.

      Figuring It Out

      For as long as good writers have been putting their quill pens or lead pencils or word processors to paper, they have tried to express themselves in the most colorful, imaginative, descriptive ways possible.

      They have tried to create lively, rich word pictures so that their readers could see the images and understand the feelings they were writing about. They have tried to give their readers the taste and smell and feel and sound and look of the scenes they were describing. They have tried to give vivid expression to their feelings and thoughts about people, places, things, and events so that their readers could share these impressions.

      To write vividly, writers often use figures of speech. Figures of speech are special ways of putting words and phrases together to give strong, sharp, clear impressions. This book will introduce you to six of the most frequently used figures of speech and suggest ways that you can use them.

      Don’t confuse figures of speech with the parts of speech. The parts of speech are words. Figures of speech are imaginative expressions.

      You always use the parts of speech to write sentences that sometimes contain figures of speech:

      Gadzooks! he shouted wildly during the amazing eclipse. The sun just went out like a candle in the wind!

      The sun went out like a candle in the wind is a perfect example of one of the most popular figures of speech, a simile (SIM-uh-lee). You’ll learn more about similes and five

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