Review by Booklist Review
This brightly illustrated picture book offers a lighthearted introduction to homophones, words that have different spellings and different meanings, though they sound the same. After moving to the zoo, Aunt Ant writes a letter ( DEAR DEER, . . . ) to tell a friend about her new neighbors, such as the moose who ate eight bowls of mousse and the giraffe whose long neck lets him CHOOSE what he CHEWS. The author/illustrator of Now and Ben: the Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin (2006), Barretta illustrates the text with a series of colorful, cartoonlike watercolor paintings, large enough in scale for classroom sharing and lightened with comic effects. Some of the scenes, including the one illustrating the giraffe, involve rotating the book to see a vertical picture instead of the usual horizontal one. A curiosity for young children and a pleasant addition to school units that include homophones, this could be paired with Arlene Alda's Did You Say Pears? (2006).--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Gene Barretta's fun and quirky introduction to homophones (Holt, 2007) is brought to life in this fun-filled romp through the zoo. He introduces the book with great humor and special effects, explaining that homophones are words that sound alike, but are spelled differently and have different meanings, like ate and eight. He then demonstrates how confusing homophones can be, as he ordered a flower for his wife, but got flour instead. In the book, Aunt Ant, who lives in the zoo, is writing to her Dear Deer, telling him of the strange and often humorous escapades she sees at the zoo. These, of course, involve some amusing homophones. From a moose who loves mousse and ate eight bowls to a doe who kneads dough because she needs the dough to a bee who flew from a flea with the flu, the descriptions are silly and fun. While some homophones may be beyond the vocabulary of the youngest viewers, the majority are fun and easy to understand. Even if the meanings of some of the words are not completely understood, the concept of a homophone is made perfectly clear. Barretta's colorful and amusing illustrations of outrageous animals add to the merriment and help explain the meanings of the homophone-filled descriptions. This pun-filled visit to the zoo is a fabulous introduction to homophones.-MaryAnn Karre, Horace Mann Elementary School, Binghamton, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In the tradition of Fred Gwynne's A Chocolate Moose for Dinner (1976) comes this comic tale replete with homophones. Aunt Ant is writing a letter to an antlered friend ("Dear Deer . . . "), describing her new life at the zoo, a place full of words that sound the same but have different meanings. From the moose who loves mousse, to the hoarse horse, the monkey who tells tales while hanging by his tail and the bee that had to flee and so flew from the flea that has the flu, each page is filled with creatures and actions that contain homophones. All of the paired words are in bold type, though nothing differentiates one homophone from another and at times more than one set appears on a page at once. Occasionally, the text feels a little forced, but overall the humor compensates, and youngsters will be tickled by the homophones and the brightly colored, appealing illustrations. Beware: Children will gain not only prowess in recognizing homophones but also the ability to produce bad puns! (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
