Winter Reading 2015 An Ambush of Tigers: A Wild Gathering of Collective Nouns

For most kids, studying nouns and verbs is rather dull. And once the teacher starts talking about common nouns and proper nouns and collective nouns, you can almost see the students' eyes glazing over. But there is a remedy for that - comedy. Rosenthal's rhyming text and Jago's illustrations take the collective nouns for different animal groups and make them into an entertaining romp. Scenes like a "tower of giraffes" balancing on each other's shoulders to form an actual tower, a "raft of otters" floating past on a rustic log raft, or "armies of herring" with tridents and military caps will have young readers searching for details that reflect on the meaning of those collective nouns. Who could resist the "shiver of sharks" with their scarves and hats? What about a "drove of sheep" driving past in a double-decker bus? 

It truly is a wild gathering - and will have students and teachers alike laughing their way through each of the examples. Perhaps they will even want to illustrate their own versions in a joint project with the art teacher. What a gallery walk that would make! I highly recommend this for any language arts classes, especially at the elementary level. 

I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

For more information about the author, visit her website. The illustrator also has a website - and at the moment, one of the illustrations from the book is on his homepage.