Dear Deer: A Book of Homophones

Aunt Ant is a funny insect indeed!

I like Barretta's work a lot. I collect children's illustrated books. This is my 4th Barretta book. As I was entering the information onto my computer for inventory purposes, I noticed something that I hope is meaningful and perhaps the beginning of a trend. It says that the book is copyrighted in 2007. Then further down on the page where it mentions the printing (mine is part of the 5th printing), it says that it was printed in the United States!!! In Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Not in Malaysia or China or Singapore, but the U.S. of A. I have books published the Smithsonian Institute, for heavens sake, that weren't printed here. I think there should be dancing in the street.

The first time I read this one to my four-year-old we both ended up laughing so hard we could hardly breathe. It's a cool concept, teaching kids about homophones.... words that are spelled differently, have different meanings, but sound the same. The premise of the story is that Aunt Ant is writing to her nephew, Dear Deer, and giving him an update on all her neighbors and friends. Some of the words I had to explain to my son but by and large he got it. It was almost at the end when we got to the gnus that it turned so funny. Jack pointed to the picture of the gnu on the page and asked what that was. I said a gnu. He pointed to the other one and asked what that was. I said a gnu. He said "Well, what about them?" And I read from the page, "There is no news about the gnus. They keep to themselves." Well, that just put both of us in stitches. We laughed so hard we couldn't stop. Ok, maybe you had to be there. But, it's just a plain fun, silly, and yes, educational book. Buy it.

My 5-year old son is learning to read, and he really enjoyed this book. I bought the book based on its positive reviews, and was not disappointed!

this book is a great way to introduce homophones to new readers. mjy kids are 6 and 4 and they love this book.

My children absolutely love Gene's latest creation. It was great to see their little minds work to figure out the meaning of the homophones. Great job Gene. Can't wait till your next book so that we can add another one of your works to our collection.