THE DOVE DOVE: Funny Homograph Riddles

by Marvin Terban ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1988

In his eighth book to explore the vagaries of the English language, Terban tackles words that are spelled alike but have different sounds and meanings. Homographs don't lend themselves to the historical notes and jokes with which Terban sported in Mad as a Wet Hen! (idioms) and Guppies in Tuxedos (eponyms); rather, he groups by sounds, number of syllables, and accent changes and concocts sentences using synonyms for the words--leaving the reader to work back to the homographs themselves (""Don't accept garbage!"" becomes ""Refuse refuse!""). Many of these are clever; some are easy; some may expand vocabularies; only occasionally is sentence structure forced. They're not exactly riddles, but there is satisfaction in coming up with the answers; and while kids should enjoy them on their own, their curricular use is obvious. Huffman's rather unattractive, cartoonish drawings add humor and occasional clues (e.g., a doe singing: ""Do the do""), but contribute less than Maestro's cheerful illustrations for Terban's previous books. Answers and pronunciations are available; the words are indexed. Useful and fun.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1988

Categories: CHILDREN'S