This is one shape book that will both challenge readers’ thinking and encourage them to think outside the box.
A math concept book that encourages creative thinking and celebrates all answers, as none are wrong!
A lengthy introduction of five and a half spreads introduces readers to the kind of mathematical thinking Danielson encourages. The first spread matches the final ones and presents four shapes, asking readers: “Which one doesn’t belong? Why?” The next spreads explain how every answer is correct—one needs only to support it. Is it the triangle among the quadrilaterals? The one shape that is an outline instead of a solid color? Nine spreads then follow that each present kids with four new shapes and the same questions, bold colors attracting and holding interest as kids pore over the similarities and differences. The author’s note emphasizes that “All properties count here; all ideas matter….You’re thinking in a mathy way when you notice sameness and difference for one property at a time.” And refreshingly, Danielson doesn’t care about technical language—observations trump terms, so don’t worry about describing them as “smooshed…dented…or colored in”; just describe them.
This is one shape book that will both challenge readers’ thinking and encourage them to think outside the box. (Math concept book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-58089-944-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Some miscues but overall an engaging entry in the seek-and-find genre.
A fresh set of broad, busy visual scrambles from the creators of An Alphabet of Alphabets (2018).
In cartoon scenes rendered with a retro look, illustrator Sanders goes from one unicyclist up to a teeming orchestra with 20 choristers and 188 instruments to spot, followed by a U.S. map with the states identified just by initials and a building site with 100 hard hats to count. Along the way, he strews triads of folktale characters (bears, goats, mice, etc.) on one spread, arranges sextets of knights and cannonballs throughout a cutaway castle on another, and invites viewers to identify the occupations of 11 train passengers, trace a maze to match 17 items with their owners, and like challenges. Efforts throughout to reflect at least a modicum of racial diversity in depictions of human figures may run aground on an Ark full of pairs including a white Noah and his equally pale wife—not to mention the stereotypical feather-headdressed Native American with teepee and totem pole in North Dakota—but do put this one up on some of Waldo’s more parochial excursions. Also, younger or less visually acute viewers may find the art’s clean lines and harmonious color schemes easier on the eye than more-challenging albums like Manuela Ancutici’s I Spy 123, with photographs by Ruth Prenting (2017), or even Walter Wick’s classics.
Some miscues but overall an engaging entry in the seek-and-find genre. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-78603-537-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lively once-over that gets further beneath the skin of its subject than first glances might suggest.
A stylish introduction to the structures and functions of cells, starting on “the derrière of a Boston terrier.”
Congratulating readers on being the owners of “37 trillion high-performance cells,” canine skin cell Ellie defines them as the difference between living and nonliving things. She then goes on to explain that each “itty-bitty building block” from red blood cell to sperm and egg has one or more jobs, how mitochondria and other organelles contribute to the effort, and (with help from a “cellfie”) how cells make more cells. Fisher incorporates text large and small in hand-lettered styles into swirling, exuberant painted images that more often suggest rather than clinically depict various sorts of cells and creatures made up of them; they definitely capture the breezy vein of the cellular tour, however. Ellie doesn’t get to a few things—meiosis, for instance, or viruses—but she covers considerable territory…and once she’s done (“I gotta split!”), the author finishes off with jokes, a source note for the “37 trillion” claim, and leads to more-detailed surveys of the topic.
A lively once-over that gets further beneath the skin of its subject than first glances might suggest. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5185-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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