Title: Synonyms to Build On
Product review: Cleary's "Words are CATegorical" series aims to teach young students the parts of speech; and language devices such as simile, and metaphor through humor, rhyme, creative story telling, and a zany group of animals.The Synonym book brings together writer Brian Cleary and illustrator Brian Gable, who together raise this already instructional series to a higher level. The format is the same with the concept definition at the beginning, and then page after page of examples. But what really works is that there are more instructional sentences that glue the examples together and summarize the concept, than in previous books. In addition, the rhyme and story telling flows easily, the illustrations pull together the nuances of the similar yet different words that bring an understanding to the depth that word choice can bring to writing. Students come away with a real desire to jump in and start exploring words. You'll notice the difference in their discussions and writing right away.
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