Various animals such as hogs, slugs, and the eponymous yaks are featured in this book. Each animal humorously acts out the verb that its name suggests. A chart listing the words and corresponding definitions are also included at the end of the book.

As an animal lover, I give this book five stars. The material is engaging, unique, and fun to read. I think this is a wonderful way to introduce interesting animals and verbs to young children and is also a good lesson on homographs. I also like the fact that there is a chart with definitions at the end of the book. What a refreshing way to learn new vocabulary and grammar! Any book that combines humor and information is a great one, in my opinion. ( )

Before I started the book—my thought was, I wonder how the person who wrote “A Long Walk to Water” will be at writing children’s books. At first, I was surprised by how few words there were. I really enjoyed the use of the same word used in both noun and verb form. I can’t recall a time I’ve read a book fully like this. I thought the verb being defined on the opposite page was a nice addition, while the illustration demonstrated both the noun and the verb. The end of the book gave a great description of what this is called-homographs — the word—the animal and describing the action. I would use this book in describing words-their similarities and differences and how words can hold many meanings and uses depending on its context. ( )

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/books/review/il-sung-nas-the-opposite-zoo-...

From the back matter: The word pairs used in this book are homographs - words that are spelled and pronounced the same, but have different meanings.

They are all noun-verb pairs, like "bug / to bug" and "duck / to duck" ( )

This is a brilliant way to teach students homographs, which can be extremely confusing to young readers. "Fish fish" with a picture of fish fishing is one way they show the multiple meanings of fish. I think this is a great idea for a book and the illustrations were phenomenal and did a wonderful job of showing the animal and the homograph to the animals. ( )

wordplay! ( )