Exuberant multicultural characters reinforce children’s knowledge of circles, squares, rectangles, triangles and semicircles, then delight the imagination with wonderful creations made entirely of those five shapes. Falwell’s gentle rhymes and predictable text pattern will keep kids focused while they guess from the illustrations what can be done with each shape. “Lots of semicircles, / half circle style— / rock them, / wear them, / make me smile!” But the fun really begins when the characters pool their shapes. They zoom around in fantastic vehicles, rocket to the stars in a spaceship, ride a dragon and sail a ship—all by using the basic five shapes. Clean lines and colorful shapes against white backgrounds make the illustrations pop and highlight the concept being presented. The final pages encourage children to find the different shapes within a party scene, and to use cut-paper shapes to create their own pictures. Pair this with tangrams or pattern blocks and watch kids’ imaginations take flight. (Picture book. 2-5)
