SHAPES AT PLAY

This eye-catching look at shapes and spatial relationships has no text, but it should speak volumes to children eager to grasp and explore the physical world.

The images in this clever board book have a clean, well-composed look that one might find in an album of excellent graphic design. Brightly colored, seemingly unrelated shapes lie on a clean white background with fold-out flaps laid over them. Unfold the flaps, and images separate, segment, or rotate, and relationships between the shapes come into focus. Caregivers, be prepared to name shapes (remember the difference between a parallelogram and a trapezoid?) or to describe the visual changes depicted in the book. Of course, this book doesn’t necessarily require a grown-up to decipher it. The images and interactions offer enough visual and tactile appeal to entertain and provoke thought without help. A blue rectangle faces a red hexagon of equal height. Unfolding the flap splits the hexagon and widens it to the width of that rectangle. Voilà; it’s an octagon. Open the flap on a yellow house to split the square “house” from the triangular roof. A red ice cream cone becomes a sphere and a cone. A diamond made from two triangles opens to reveal a larger triangle made up of four equilateral triangles. Removing a small circle from the edge of a larger one leaves a circle and a crescent.

Engages young minds by engaging their fingers.