SHAPES AND SHAPES

An introduction to circles, squares, triangles, and more.

A teacher and a classroom of children begin noticing shapes around them. An umbrella looks like an octagon; the lenses in the teacher’s sunglasses are shaped like stars. From there the students create images using shapes, notice them on the playground, and build things with three-dimensional cylinders, cones, and cubes. The opening pages are busy: Shapes litter the classroom floor. A particularly compelling illustration shows a grayish piece of artwork, drawn by the kids, depicting the town, followed by an image of the town filled in with colors—and plenty of shapes. Readers looking closely will pick up on clues in the images that help tell the story, like a kid getting whacked by a ball on the playground. Although there isn’t much plot here—no characters are named, and the story is mostly a demonstration of shapes in our surroundings—the story does serve as a strong introduction to graphic novels, balancing full-page images with panels and helping readers navigate the action and home in on details in the larger illustrations. The teacher is brown-skinned, and the students have a variety of skin tones and hair colors, their bodies themselves geometrically composed. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Will have readers eagerly pointing out the shapes around them.