Orange Pear Apple Bear   by Emily Gravett (2007)

The book has very little text but plays with the 4 words from the title in interesting ways. The children at preschool storytime thought the combination of pictures and text was very funny, like the illustration of "pear bear" which shows a greenish pear-shaped bear. The older children right away (at the title) commented, "hey that rhymes!", so we talked about rhymes being words that sound alike, like "pear" and "bear." The book also provides good opportunities for open-ended questions like, "Why do they call it a pear bear?" and "What happened…?" questions.

Great for dialogic reading and for phonological awareness .

- Barbara Head