Dog Days of Summer: Fun with Cliches! (Paperback or Softback)

Dog Days of Summer: Fun with Clichés! is a laugh-out-loud children's book by journalist Jayne A. Pearl, based on common clichés about animals. It is beautifully and hilariously illustrated by artist Mat Bevilacqua, who makes the animals and phrases come to life by imagining a literal interpretation.

This kids' book will amuse and inform both adult and child. The back pages, "Prompts and Circumstances, provide questions adults can ask children to help them guess the meaning of each cliché, as well as definitions and origins of each saying. This will be useful and engaging for grade-school teachers and students in the classroom, in person or virtually. New English learners and their teachers will also find this book invaluable for learning English idioms they are likely to hear but not understand naturally.

Jayne Pearl is a journalist and entertaining speaker, focusing on family business and financial parenting. Her nonfiction books, including Kids and Money (Bloomberg) and Kids, Wealth and Consequences (Wiley), present original and proven techniques for instilling positive financial values, skills and discipline in children and young adults. She also writes poetry and has written a series of humorous children's books, including Dog Days of Summer: Fun with Clichés, and the forthcoming Funny Money: More Fun with Clichés, Following My Heart: Yet More Fun with Clichés and Walking the Talk: Even More Fun with Clichés. She has also been a big sister for more than twelve years with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. and volunteers at Center for New Americans, helping recent immigrants adjust to living in the U.S. She lives in Western Massachusetts.

Mat Bevilacqua has produced large colorful murals outdoors, as well as smaller commissions both public and private. He combines elements of design, watercolor big and small, public and private. As Mat's Instagram portfolio (@MatBev) reveals, his work is vibrant and tactile, resonating with a strong sense of color and form, working in unison. Mat resides in Providence, Rhode Island with his wife, Bianca, their toddler son, and their Siberian husky, Ralph, who loves the dog days of summer.