I love similes. If you’re not a former English major or a word enthusiast by nature, you might think I’m talking about a new yoga pose or perhaps a trendy salad ingredient. Perhaps you vaguely remember the word simile from a long-ago English class.
To refresh your memory: A simile is a comparison between two things, usually containing the words “as” or “like.” Does “My love is like a red, red rose” ring a bell?
Similes are close relatives of metaphors. A metaphor is a more direct comparison of two things and doesn’t use “as” or “like.” “Love is a river” is an example of a metaphor.
This post is about similes. Metaphors will have to wait their turn. I’m not sure why I love similes, but I think it might have something to do with being from the South, where inventing similes comes as natural as sitting on the porch after supper.
I’ve compiled some of my favorite similes from books for children and young adults.
For a moment he had no clue where he was. He stretched. Like a bubble rising through murky water to sunlight above, he slowly worked his way to being fully awake and aware.
From The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes. You can learn more about Kevin Henkes at kevinhenkes.com/.
Then, as quickly as it had come, much of the image faded away, like sidewalk chalk in the rain.
From The Secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange. You can learn more about Lucy Strange at lucystrange.org/.
The stones remained, but every plank of wood, every piece of furniture, and every pane of glass dissolved like a sugar cube in a cup of hot tea.
From The Missing Piece of Charlie O’Reilly by Rebecca K.S. Ansari. You can learn more about Rebecca K.S. Ansari at rebeccaansari.com/.
The girl and the squirrel slipped through the crowds like a pair of scissors through tissue paper.
Having Peter close to them was risky—like balancing a piranha in a fishbowl on the edge of your bathtub.
Van’s heart banged like a marble in an empty tin can.
From The Collectors by Jacqueline West. You can learn more about Jacqueline West at jacquelinewest.com/.
The eaglet lurched up away from the side of the nest. It was splay-legged as a baby with a full diaper.
It’s long black talons — already they were as long as her pinky — were wrapped up over its fisted feet. It wobbled on them like a man with frostbitten toes.
He marched like a man wearing big boots, and looked like one, too, with his wings lifted and his long, feathery pants exposed.
From Stand on the Sky by Erin Bow. You can learn more about Erin Bow at erinbow.com/about.
New York waited outside the window, stretching up to the sky like the calligraphy of a particularly flamboyant god.
Grandpa was the only person Vita knew who seemed to spark electricity when he talked, as if he struck against the world like flint against steel.
From The Good Thieves by Katherine Rundell. You can learn more about Katherine Rundell at rcwlitagency.com/authors/rundell-katherine/.
… communities, “where every house looked like the last house, like a choir of homes dressed in the same robes, turned the same way, singing the same melody in the same key, which makes for a boring, boring song.”
From Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds. You can learn more about Jason Reynolds at jasonwritesbooks.com/.
Outside, the building looked just as it had the other day, a narrow stone edifice between two bigger buildings like the last book crammed into a shelf.
From Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce. You can learn more about Elizabeth C. Bunce at elizabethcbunce.com.
On the first day, when I walked in and saw all those boys staring at me like I was a piece of hair in their soup, it sure felt good to see Yolanda’s upside-down-Y smile. Since we’re the only girls in the class, we cling together like staticky socks.
From A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée. You can learn more about Lisa Moore Ramée at lisamooreramee.com.
Sometimes her thoughts started churning like clothes in a washer and she couldn’t stop them.
… her mom had never said I’m sorry to Ivy before. The words were like some strange creature from the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean.
From The Education of Ivy Blake by Ellen Airgood. You can learn more about Ellen Airgood at ellenairgood.com/.
Something terrible crossed her face, like a dark wind crossing over tall grass.
The word came out dry and brittle, like a dead leaf crumbled in someone’s hand.
From The Fall by James Preller. You can learn more about James Preller at jamespreller.com/.
The table with the drawer that housed the mouse was pushed off, also alone, into a far corner, and three armchairs and an elderly rocker stood about aimlessly, like strangers at a party, ignoring each other.
The sky was a ragged blaze of red and pink and orange, and its double trembled on the surface of the pond like color spilled from a paintbox.
From Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. You can learn more about Natalie Babbitt at us.macmillan.com/author/nataliebabbitt.
Having a few good similes in it doesn’t necessarily mean a book has an interesting plot or a satisfying ending, but these books have it all. I hope these snippets will make you go after these books like a chicken on a June-bug!