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CIRCLES AND SQUARES EVERYWHERE!

There is no shortage of picture books featuring geometric shapes, but surely this is one of the brightest. Grover (Amazing and Incredible Counting Stories, 1995, etc.) mimics children's art in his use of simple shapes and naive perspective, but composition and the balance of the intense colors are sophisticated. The book begins with circles—tires—on cars, then on trucks, and then as part of an interlacing jumble of ``tires and cars and trucks and roads.'' Squares are shown first as windows, then buildings are added, with roads between. Circles and squares are combined as boxes are loaded on trucks and smokestacks are added to buildings; boats appear, and finally all the elements seen on earlier pages come together in a busy panorama. An eye-catching elementary introduction to the notion, also found in Dayle Ann Dodds's The Shape of Things (1994, not reviewed), that these basic shapes can be found everywhere. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: April 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-200091-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1996

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CHICKA CHICKA HO HO HO

From the Chicka Chicka Book series

A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree.

A Christmas edition of the beloved alphabet book.

The story starts off nearly identically to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989), written by John Archambault and the late Bill Martin Jr, with the letters A, B, and C deciding to meet in the branches of a tree. This time, they’re attempting to scale a Christmas tree, not a coconut tree, and the letters are strung together like garland. A, B, and C are joined by the other letters, and of course they all “slip, slop, topple, plop!” right down the tree. At the bottom, they discover an assortment of gifts, all in a variety of shapes. As a team, the letters and presents organize themselves to get back up on the Christmas tree and get a star to the top. Holiday iterations of favorite tales often fall flat, but this take succeeds. The gifts are an easy way to reinforce another preschool concept—shapes—and the text uses just enough of the original to be familiar. The rhyming works, sticking to the cadence of the source material. The illustrations pay homage to the late Lois Ehlert’s, featuring the same bold block letters, though they lack some of the whimsy and personality of the original. Otherwise, everything is similarly brightly colored and simply drawn. Those familiar with the classic will be drawn to this one, but newcomers can enjoy it on its own.

A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024

ISBN: 9781665954761

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024

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TEN LITTLE FISH

This charming, colorful counting tale of ten little fish runs full-circle. Although the light verse opens and closes with ten fish swimming in a line, page-by-page the line grows shorter as the number of fish diminishes one-by-one. One fish dives down, one gets lost, one hides, and another takes a nap until a single fish remains. Then along comes another fish to form a couple and suddenly a new family of little fish emerges to begin all over. Slick, digitally-created images of brilliant marine flora and fauna give an illusion of underwater depth and silence enhancing the verse’s numerical and theatrical progression. The holistic story bubbles with life’s endless cycle. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2004

ISBN: 0-439-63569-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2004

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