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Dear Deer A Book of Homophones

Summary


Clever Aunt Ant has just moved to the zoo.  Speaking in homophones, she describes the quirky animal behavior she sees. There’s the MOOSE who loved MOUSSE and ATE EIGHT bowls, and the WHALE who was ALLOWED to WAIL ALOUD – and that’s just for starters. This playful picture book introduces children to the richness of language through the concept of homophones.  A romp through the zoo has never been so eye-opening.



News


Mazza Museum! Here I come!

July 26th, 2015

Dear Deer named among the Top 20 books of 2010 by LibraryThing.com

December 28th, 2010

Dear Deer released in Braille as the October 2009 Book of the Month by The National Braille Press.

June 23rd, 2009

Dear Deer selected as a Notable Children’s Book in the Language Arts for 2008 by The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

March 28th, 2008

“Dear Deer” chosen to be included in the Scholastic Book Club “Lucky Club” catalogue for September 2008.

March 20th, 2008

The Dec/Jan issue of “Parenting” magazine named “Dear Deer” as one of the 2007 Mom-Tested Books of the Year.

November 21st, 2007

“Dear Deer” made into a “Special Appearance DVD” by Spoken Arts. Released 11/07.

November 14th, 2007

“Dear Deer” chosen for “Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club” for September 2007.

February 2nd, 2007



Book Reviews


Booklist

September 1st, 2007

“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 loves mousse and the giraffe whose “long neck lets him CHOOSE what he CHEWS.” The author/illustrator of Now & 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 scene, including the one illustrating the giraffe, involve rotating the book to see a vertical picture instead of the 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?”




Kirkus Reviews

August 15th, 2007

“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 yet have different meanings. From the moose who loves mousse, to the hoarse horse, the monkey who tells a tale as he hangs from 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!”





DVD Reviews


School Library Journal

May 1st, 2008

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 hen 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 oves mousse and ate eight bowls to a doe who kneads the 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, 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 scriptions. The pun-filled visit to the zoo is a fabulous introduction to homophones.

-MaryAnn Karre,

Horace Mann Elementary School, Binghamton, NY






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