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THIS WAY, THAT WAY

Name: THIS WAY, THAT WAY
Author: Antonio Ladrillo
ISBN: 978-1-84976-451-3

illustrated by Antonio Ladrillo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 2017

Elegantly simple in design, but as for content, less is definitely less.

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Using vertical and diagonal creases to bend the pages, readers can transform circles and other geometric shapes in this wordless concept book.

Evidently intended to encourage playing around with orientation and visual relationships, this series of very simple shapes, each sporting a similar pair of googly eyes and a smiling mouth, fill creased (or, occasionally, split) pages and can be bent or flipped to make monochrome or bi-color squares, rectangles, triangles, or half circles. The faces might end up in different quadrants, right side up or upside down, looking away or toward the face on the opposite page. There is a sort of peekaboo effect to flipping the folded segments back and forth, but the stiff paper is hard to bend (a feature that does make it somewhat durable, however), and too often a folded page disrupts an otherwise harmonious double-page spread rather than creating a new, delightful configuration. Moreover, the game suggested by the title (the only text) is, at best, rather vague. Any guidance or element of surprise would have to be supplied by an outside narrator (“Oh, look! The yellow circle is now…an orange square!”), and aside from the direction of their glances, all the faces are monotonously identical.

Elegantly simple in design, but as for content, less is definitely less. (Novelty. 2-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-84976-451-3

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Tate/Abrams

Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

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ANIMAL SHAPES

by Christopher Silas Neal ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 27, 2018

Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
CREEP, LEAP, CRUNCH! A FOOD CHAIN STORY
by Jody Jensen Shaffer ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

- BOOK REVIEW
ALL’S RIGHT WITH THE WORLD
by Jennifer Adams ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

- BOOK REVIEW
OVER AND UNDER THE WAVES
by Kate Messner ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

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TEN ON A TWIG

by Lo Cole ; illustrated by Lo Cole ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2020

Who knew that turning the pages could be the best part of a book?

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Counting down one by one, 10 birds fall off a branch.

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)