Most shape books ask readers to find shapes in the everyday world; Hesselberth does the opposite and sparks children’s...
Hesselberth’s is an unusual sort of shape concept book, encouraging readers to create pictures from simple shapes.
A blonde girl and a redheaded boy (both white and with body parts made from simple shapes) each take a single shape and combine the two, challenging themselves and each other to invent a scene incorporating them. A triangle atop a semicircle becomes a ballerina in a tutu leaping across a stage, her arms outstretched. Or it’s an elephant floating through the sky with the help of a bunch of balloons. What do you get when you put a crescent on top of a trapezoid? The head of an angry bull or a fish returning to the water after a jump. Other combinations include a rectangle atop a circle (a lady with a hat, a futuristic car) and the penultimate puzzler: an oval atop a diamond atop a square (an upside-down clown). Readers are given a chance to imagine their own scenes with the final double-page spread, which presents them with 12 two-shape scenarios. Muted colors and bold, graphic designs highlight the shapes in the illustrations, made with mixed media and digital paint, and the shapes are highlighted, making it easy to pick them out within the scenes.
Most shape books ask readers to find shapes in the everyday world; Hesselberth does the opposite and sparks children’s imaginations. (Concept book. 2-6)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62779-057-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.
You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!
What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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