This book was designed to have a phonics focus for children struggling with vowel sounds. Although it contains many words with different vowel sound I feel it is extremely lacking in story form. The story spend a lot of time building up to the finding of the deer and then simply drops off. With a little more effort I feel it would have been very easy to include these same words and build a story that truly draws in readers. I do not know if the sentence repetition in parts of this book was purposeful but I feel it is awkward and would hinder young reader rather than help them build skills. This occurs on pages 5 and 6 when the author says "The children hiked and hiked, but no deer appeared. The children hiked and hiked, but no dear appeared." Students at this age are still trying to understand how proper English sounds and the lack of fluency in this part of the book could throw them off and confuse them. Although I understand the point of this book I feel it is severely lacking in many areas. ( )