Picture Books for Teaching Figurative Language

"La Lecture" by Henri Matisse

Hypberbole

• Swamp Angel by Anne Isaacs, Paul Zelinsky
• The Giant of Seville: A "Tall" Tale Based on a True Story by Dan Andreasan
• Doña Flor: A Tall Tale About a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart by Pat Mora, Raul Colon 
• Thunder Rose* by Jerdine Nolen

Idiom

• Monkey Business* by Wallace Edwards
• The Cat's Pajamas by Wallace Edwards
• There's a Frog in My Throat: 440 Animal Sayings a Little Bird Told Me by Loreen Leedy, Pat Street
• You Are What You Eat: and Other Mealtime Hazards by Serge Bloch

Imagery/Sensory Language

• Saturday and Teacakes* by Lester Laminack, Chris Soentpiet
• Dream: A Tale of Wonder, Wisdom and Wishes by Susan V. Bosak, Leon Dillon 
• One Leaf Rides the Wind by Celeste Mannis, Susan Kathleen Hartung
• Wild Child by Lynn Plourde, Greg Couch

Metaphor

• Tar Beach by Faith Ringold
• Prairie Train by Marsha Wilson Chall, John Thompson
• In November by Cynthia Rylant, Jill Kastner
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
• White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt, Roger Duvoisin
• Hide and Seek Fog by Alvin Tresselt, Roger Duvoisin

Simile

• Elephant Dance: Memories of India* by Theresa Heine, Sheila Moxley
• Chanticleer and the Fox by Geoffrey Chaucer, Barbara Cooney
• Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like by Jay Williams, Mercer Mayer
• The Little Island by Margaret Wise Brown, Leonard Wisegard
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
• White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt, Roger Duvoisin
• Hide and Seek Fog by Alvin Tresselt, Roger Duvoisin
• Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood, Don Wood

Personification

• New York is English, Chattanooga is Creek* by Chris Raschka
• Hello, Harvest Moon by Ralph Fletcher, Kate Kiesler
• The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
• Gilberto and the Wind by Marie Hall Ets
• Flossie and the Fox by Patricia McKissack, Rachel Isadora
• There is a Flower At the Tip of My Nose Smelling Me by Alice Walker, Stefano Vitale
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault, Lois Ehlert

Symbolism

• I Have an Olive Tree by Eve Bunting, Karen Barbour
• The Lotus Seed by Sherry Barbour, Tatsuro Kiuchi
• The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco
• Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say
• Home of the Brave by Allen Say
• The Rag Coat by Lauren A. Mills

Alliteration

Assonance and Consonance

• Animalia by Graeme Base
• Alligators All Around by Maurice Sendak
• Walter Was Worried by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
• A Little Book of Alliterations by Felix Arthur, Jenny Capon
• More here

Onomatopoeia

• Langston's Train Ride* by Robert Burleigh, Leonard Jenkins
• Charlie Parker Played Be Bop by Chris Raschka
• Snow Sounds: An Onomatopoeic Story by David Johnson
• Arctic Lights, Arctic Nights by Debbie S. miller, Jon Van Zyle

Books marked with an asterisk are included in Teaching Literary Elements with Picture Books by Susan van Zile.