The EE in the deep blue sea by Judith Barker. Illus. Ill. by Janie Frith

The curious sound, 'EE', pops up in a lot of different places: reef and sea, beach, she and fishy. Each sound is that of the 'EE', but is written quite differently. So a story of the deep blue sea, offers children a funny tale with an emphasis on the sound that 'EE' makes but not necessarily written as it sounds.

A family walks along the pier to the boat will taken them to the island in the deep blue sea. Here they walk along the shore, watching the seagulls there, rising in that salty air. They see a hungry squid is looking for a feed while the hermit crab retreats swiftly into its shell.

All along the way they see many many things which promote the use of the 'EE' sound and its written forms. Children will love offering different examples and playing with the sound.

The vibrant illustrations reveal many animals that live in the sea, or are dependent on it for life. Readers will love spotting all the animals, comparing their lists with others.

Others in the series, include, The O in the snow, The OO in Uluru, The AA in the rainforest and The I in the island.  The OO in Uluru was awarded first prize by the Speech Pathology Australia organisation in 2019.

Themes: Sea, Phonemes, fish, island, Sea life.

Fran Knight