Even More Parts

(Children's illustrated book)

The sequel of sorts to Parts and More Parts, this was a book I read to my 4 year old's class, and had them all interacting. Perfectly aimed at that age group, with the right level of humour (and you know what that means - *sigh*), it illustrates some of the idioms we use.

Actually, it illustrates the silly things we say about our body parts - and there are loads of them; for example, "I changed my mind" has the protagonist taking out one brain to put in another. Or when the teacher says "All eyes on me" the whole class throws their eyeballs at her. The kids loved the book, and it got quite a few laughs. I liked the way (well, yes, I found it funny, too) each page was dedicated to one body part, and the bar at show more the bottom of each page with still more idioms on that body part, illustrated by the boy again, his toy robot and his toy tank.

Funny, clever and not too gross; right up my street!

5 stars show less

Summary: This book is by Tedd Arnold. It is another great book about body parts. It is about a boy that is confused by all the things he has been hearing. He writes down a list of things he has heard people say. The sayings are idioms that we are use every day, and they scare him. He wants to be prepared so he won’t “get bent out of shape”. This is an example of one of the idioms.

Personal Reaction: I have never looked at idioms this way. It makes you think about the strange sayings that people say. One of my favorite is “I want all eyes on me”, and the eyes are coming out of the students’ heads toward the teacher. The children will love it because it is funny and has just enough grossness.

Classroom Extensions: 1.This would show more be a great read aloud book for younger children and you could talk about body parts. 2. For the older children this book is great examples for a lesson on idioms. show less

Even More Parts is a continuation in the series that Tedd Arnold has created about a boy, named Chip, who is terrified about all the body-part idioms he hears throughout his day. Chip tells his story and walks the reader through the list he created about the scary things he has heard. The illustrations move the story and develops the character, giving insight to why he fears these words. Children will find this story funny and it gives good examples of common idioms used in America. The goofiness of the pictures makes the missing of body parts not gruesome. I would caution that the word "stupid" is used by Chip to explain his ears and because of this I recommended using the first book as a read aloud to explain idioms.

Age Appropriate: show more 9 to 12
Better to use this as a read aloud and can be used for older ages as examples of idioms.

Arnold, T. (2004). Even more parts. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. show less

Interest Level: Grades 6-12

Synopsis:
A little boy (Chip Block) explores with the help of a dinosaur, a toy army truck, and a superhero action figure, phrases that are figurative and not real. Each of the three “helpers” uses a different usage of a word. For example with the word heart, Chip says, “I sang my heart out” showing a picture of Chip’s heart crashing to the floor in a scene resembling Romeo and Juliet. The dinosaur says, “She stole my heart.” the superhero says, “Have a heart.” and the toy tank says “I have a heart of steel. I’m hard-hearted.” In each case, a new meaning is derived by the sentence structure surrounding the word. The book is filled with several other examples as Chip explores figures of show more speech and idioms that are common in American vernacular. The pages are filled with colorful pictures depicting each word or phrase that Chip looks at and tries to understand. The book opens and closes with simple but entertaining rhymes.

Reflection:
I love this book!! It is SO cute with the colorful pictures and expressions of the main character, Chip. I read it at least four times and shared it with colleagues. This is a great, graphical way to illustrate idioms and figures of speech to English Language Learners (ELLs). Most of the expressions, being graphically illustrated, lend to easy understanding by small children on up to those in high school. When I was teaching at the high school level, the biggest problem was trying to explain slang and local vernacular to students who had just entered the United States. Pictures do express a thousand words. This is the third book in the series (following Parts and More Parts) by Tedd Arnold. I have ordered the whole set for the ELL department and the English department to help facilitate language acquisition. show less

Our favorite little paranoid boy is back in another installment of the Parts series. Only this time it's idioms that are frightening him. When he starts hearing people say things like "I lost my head" and "My head is spinning" he starts to worry that he might be coming unglued again. With the help of his overactive imagination and his favorite toys he illustrates many common idioms as if they were meant literally. It's really a charming book that kids will love and it really has something to teach them.

This is yet another book by Tedd Arnold about Chip. In this story, Chip is confused by all the things he's been hearing. Idioms, which make sense to most of us, scare him so he's determined to be prepared so he won't "lose his marbles" or "cry his eyes out".

This book is awesome. The illustrations are bright, colorful, and very funny. Arnold uses only body part idioms to go along with the theme of his books. My favorite idiom is "all eyes on me"; the page featuring this phrase has a teacher with a bunch of eyeballs stuck on her. Children will love this book because it is funny and has just the right about of grossness.

This book could be used to help children understand figures of speech. I might use this as a way to introduce a unit on show more language. We could talk about how idioms make sense to people who understand the manner of speaking, but can confuse people who are not native speakers of a particular language or children. As a class project, we could make a list of all the idioms we've heard and we could talk about what they mean. show less

The art was done with colored pencils and watercolor washes, and the text was hand-lettered by the artist. I loved the big, bug-out eyes in this book. At the bottom of each page there is a border of other idioms that are similar to the one on that page-lots to look at and learn.