Did You Say Pears? [Hardcover]

Kindergarten-Grade 2–Photographs carry the meaning of the text in this book that emphasizes common homophones and homonyms. If horns played cool music, for example, is illustrated with a full-page colorful image of a ram against a grassy green background and a picture of a brass quintet in bright red uniforms. While the text is dependent on the images, some are clumsily staged. If nails were on fingers is illustrated with an image of a cluster of nails opposite a photo of an awkwardly posed hand with artificial fingernails. An additional purchase for language-arts units.–Jodi Kearns, University of Akron, OH
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K-Gr. 3. A marvelously imaginative pairing (sorry) of homonyms (words that sound alike but have different meanings and the same spelling) and homophones (words that sound alike but have different meanings and different spellings), wrapped up in a rhyme of amazingly few words and terrific offbeat photographs. "If a pitcher / could pour" reads the text on a spread showing a boy pitching a baseball to a girl batter opposite a photograph of a perfectly luscious blue china water pitcher. "And glasses / could see" is illustrated by photos of clear glass and colored plastic tumblers opposite a rosy rag doll wearing shades. "If the sun / could laugh" pairs a sunset with a giggling, bouncing baby boy, and the "blew" of blowing out birthday candles is matched with a perfect expanse of cloudless blue sky. Accomplished author and photographer Alda is married to the actor Alan Alda and impishly notes on the back cover copy that "they have been a pair for many years." GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

“As entertaining as it is aesthetically pleasing.” 
— Publishers Weekly

". . . each photograph is notable for its eye appeal, its freshness, and each verbal sally provokes an aha! moment.” 
— The Globe and Mail

“A marvelously imaginative pairing . . .of homonyms . . . and homophones wrapped up in a rhyme of amazingly few words and terrific offbeat photographs.” 
— Booklist

“ . . .a luscious welcome to the visual and mind-tickling delights of language . . .”
— The Toronto Star

“If horns played cool music, and pants were just clothes....”

Horn, pants, nails, trunk, pitcher — all words that can mean more than one thing. Arlene Alda has put together words and images in a delightful and witty book of photographs as inviting as a pair of juicy pears. Did You Say Pears? takes a playful and very clever look at words that sound the same but have different meanings. Young readers will love to hone their budding sense of language with the deceptively simple text and the irresistible photographs that offer a first taste of the richness of words. A useful information page explaining the wordplay is included.

Arlene Alda’s photographs challenge the reader to look and look again in this book that is bound to be a family favorite.

Praise for The Book of ZZZs:

“...delightful... these photos will warm your heart….”
—Today’s Parent

“…this gentle parade of photographs would make a lovely inducement to slumber.”
—The Globe and Mail

Praise for 97 Orchard Street, New York:

“Alda’s contemporary photos add a beautiful artistic note…. The flavor of life on Orchard Street from the end of the nineteenth century through the 1930s can be tasted here.”
—Booklist

Arlene Alda is an award-winning photographer and writer whose photographs have appeared in Life, Vogue, and People and in numerous galleries. She is the author of twelve children’s books including her most recent, The Book of ZZZs; Morning Glory Monday, illustrated by Maryann Kovalski; and her photographs are featured in 97 Orchard Street, New York, by Linda Granfield. A native New Yorker, Arlene Alda is the proud grandmother of seven. She lives on Long Island with her husband, actor Alan Alda.