CIRCUS SHAPES

Murphy (Betcha!, p. 1460, etc.) adds to the MathStart series with a book about shapes, presenting them in no less than three rings. In lackluster rhyme, elephants show circles, horses show triangles, monkeys hold up a square, and bears handle a rectangle. The shapes are evident in introductory illustrations but not identified until spreads in the middle, and that's only one inconsistency that limits the book's usefulness. Lions roar amidst plenty of stars and diamonds—shapes that aren't mentioned in the text or found in a previous illustration. A final spread before the show ends asks how many circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles are in the picture, but no key is provided to reinforce the lesson. Beyond that lesson, Miller's clean-cut illustrations offer bright colors and bold geometric shapes, doing for the circus what Donald Crews did for the festive procession in Parade (1983). (Picture book. 2-4)