There may be as many as 7,000 idioms whizzing about today's British English: descriptive gems such as Bob's your uncle, spend a penny and easy peasy lemon squeasy. Native speakers use these phrases to add richness and meaning to their writing and speech. Non-native speakers and people learning the language, often find idioms hard to grasp. This is because idioms have often developed through centuries of customs and life-style. To make matters worse, they don't usually make any sense if you take them out of context or simply look at their words.

Troublesome as idioms are, once mastered and used correctly, they can make our communications more vivid and exciting. But be warned: a few idioms go a very long way. This book cautions children to understand these phrases and use them sparingly, or risk find themselves barking up the wrong tree with a foot in their mouth. This would be very uncomfortable: and possibly as distressing as having a bug up their noses, a bee in their bonnets and a chip on their shoulders.

The Brabbler's Guide to Idioms introduces children to some of the lost friends of the English language - forgotten and misunderstood idioms that are hoping to be adopted by them. Great sounding, word mouthfuls, such as 'knee-high to a grasshopper' and 'too big for your boots.'

Fast-moving, humourous and lavishly illustrated, this book is part of a series prepared to help bring underused and misunderstood language back into usage in homes, in classrooms and in playgrounds. As a spin-off from the wacky world of Carnaby Street and her Great Uninvited, the Brabbler's Guides encourage children from as young as seven to experiment with the sounds of great words and to express themselves in a manner far removed from the confines of text and tweet.