This is one of the more successful of Gwynne's books on homonyms and idioms because the selections are not so obvious. Phrases such as guerrilla war and chocolate mousse are good for the target audience, in that they lead to short discussions about how these words got from here to there.

The collection also serves to illustrate the silliness of some words. Shoe tree, for example, is a silly concoction, and so is the expression on the lam, which deserves to be pictured as a gent riding the back of a baby sheep. And though the one is self-evident, the other will have you scurrying to the dictionary to check up on word origins.

The only stumbler is, "Mom says her favorite painter is Dolly." Depending on which part of the country you are from, that one may take some time to decipher. Then try explaining surrealism to a four-year-old. "But why does the clock melt?" one wanted to know. Your serve.

Gwynne also produced The King Who Rained and A Little Pigeon Toad. You might also want to read Charles Ghigna's See the Yak Yak.