Offers nothing unique in a market full of concept books about shapes
Against stark-white pages, identical red triangles, identical yellow squares, and identical blue circles are arranged and rearranged into familiar items amid a text heavily punctuated with exclamation marks.
The page facing the title page is encouraging: one of each of the shapes—with smiling face and matching boots, as on the cover—stands facing readers. The bold, black text beneath says, “Let’s play!” After that, the shapes become faceless and legless, but the text retains a forced cheerfulness and excitement to convey rather prosaic instructions. “March, little triangles, with a one, two, three!” appears above three identical red triangles on the verso. The illustration on the opposite page shows one additional, small triangle on the bottom next to a large triangle created from 16 smaller ones, topped by “Let’s build a BIG triangle!” After the squares make a big square, the circles bounce around. Eventually, all three shapes together create such things as houses, trees, and a train. (“So let’s be a train! Chugga…CHOO CHOO!”) Inexplicably, there is a weird, incorrect nod to physics when the text says of circles, “The more of us there are, the HIGHER we’ll go!” The book cries out for interaction, such as identical tiles for little hands to place over the three shapes in their primary colors, but without it, it’s a strangely passive experience; readers may wish to explore the app of the same name.
Offers nothing unique in a market full of concept books about shapes . (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: July 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9038-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Who knew that turning the pages could be the best part of a book?
The concept of this picture book is simple enough: 10 birds topple, slip, and dive their way off the titular twig until there is one left. The text itself echoes familiar singsong-y children’s rhymes like “Five Little Pumpkins.” While it mostly succeeds, there are some awkward spots: “5 on a twig, there used to be more… / SNAP! Don’t say a word, now there are four.” (On each page the number is both spelled out and represented as a numeral). The real scene stealer, however, is the book’s interplay between Cole’s illustrations and the physical pages themselves. In much the same way Eric Carle utilizes the pages in The Very Hungry Caterpillar to show the little critter eating its way through the week, Cole uses pages of increasing width to show how the twig grows shorter as each bird falls and marches off purposefully with the others, all headed toward verso with pieces of twig in their beaks. Stylistically, the book is captivating. The very colorful, egg-shaped birds appear on a single, thin black line on a stark white background. This backdrop stands in powerful contrast to the book’s final two pages, which are set against black negative space, a theme echoed in the book’s feather-print endpapers. The heavy, thick pages make it easy for little hands to participate. The text takes a back seat to the playful and compelling design, which is sure to delight readers.
Who knew that turning the pages could be the best part of a book? (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-72821-593-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
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