Butterflies in My Stomach and Other School Hazards

By Serge Bloch

You can bet your bottom dollar this funny story is the cream of the crop—and the best thing since sliced bread! Award-winning artist Serge Bloch will have kids laughing their heads off at this child’s-eye look at idiomatic expressions like “ants in your pants,” “homework is for the birds,” and “cat got your tongue?” These commonly used sayings make sense in the adult world, but just imagine what a child pictures when she hears it’s “raining cats and dogs!” With witty and wonderful images that mix whimsical line drawings with photographs of inanimate objects, Bloch gives us a unique and sympathetic perspective on a boy’s first day of school where colorful butterflies flutter in our hero’s stomach and a cloud rains on him when he’s “under the weather.” Even the “big cheese” Principal has a body cut out of a block of Swiss. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Union Square & Co.
• Release date: Jul 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781402795343

Serge Bloch

Serge Bloch is an author and illustrator of many books for children and adults. He lives in Paris, France.

Book preview

Reviews for Butterflies in My Stomach and Other School Hazards

[diamonddog_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Just about everyone has felt as if butterflies were in their stomach, especially on the first day of school. This tidy little book explores one boy's first day with a string of colorful idioms. Great read-a-loud and a nice way to get a laugh as well as learn a bit about the wonderfully complex English language!

[theblindlibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Butterflies in My Stomach (and Other School Hazards)By Serge Bloch, Illustrations by Judith Inglese2010, Sterling PublishingReview by Debra L Scott, 12/14/2011Do you ever think about how a child might interpret your words? Butterflies in My Stomach is a delightful look at idiomatic expressions, and how a child might take them literally. It is the first day of school, and the boy has actual butterflies inside his stomach, pictures going to school inside a pickle with wheels (“we’d be in a real pickle if we missed the bus”). Then, of course, it rains ‘cats and dogs’ and he opens ‘a can of worms’. The whole story is fun to read, with the pen and ink illustrations showing the literal meaning of the phrase. What a great way to help a kid laugh away the jitters of the first day of school! Also a good way to help a child look at the way words can mean something very different than the usual meanings, depending on how they are used, and for children who speak a different language at home, and may not be familiar with common idioms. Good scholastically as an early introduction to creative language, idioms and linguistics.

[amysisson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely adore the clever illustrations in this book, in which line drawings are combined with a photographed object to illustrate a simile or metaphor or saying, such as "butterflies in my stomach". However, I think that the concept of all these sayings might be beyond kindergarteners, and since the book is about a boy's first day of school, that might be a bit of a conflict in trying to pick the right age group for this book. For instance, the librarian tells the boy that if he loses his library books, he'd be "up a creek without a paddle". The picture shows a boy in a boat on some water, but I'm not sure a five-year-old would really understand, even from that picture, what "up a creek without a paddle" means.Otherwise, A for effort -- I mean it when I say I love these illustrations. I will seek out more work by this author.

[nancystorm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book for all ages, esp. ELL students as it explains some of the idioms we use in every day language in a humorous and clever way. Great art goes along with the text and helps to explain to more concrete thinkers how we often talk about things in the abstract sense. Highly recommended.

[acwheeler · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book for kids starting their first day of school! Cute captions to go along with the words which would help beginner readers learn words more easily! Shows first day of school can be difficult but once you come out of your shell school will become ever more fun!