Review by Booklist Review
Ages 3-5. Ehlert plays with colors and cutout shapes in this inviting picture book that shows how, with a little imagination, basic shapes can combine to make a tiger, a mouse, or a fox. Apart from an introductory rhyme that invites children to try their own hand at creating animals, words are few, functioning mainly as labels for the forms. The book boasts clean, flat colors, with the circles, triangles, and squares cut out of the thick paper pages. One cutout looks through to another, and their combinations, decorated with the proper crisp graphics, produce the stylized animal faces. All of the colors, shapes, and animals are rounded up in a neat visual index at the finish, which will help children clarify the distinctive elements of each creation. Although the book's paper is sturdy, the pages aren't cardboard, and busy little fingers will soon wear them out. This could be considered a toy as much as a book, and grownups will find its attractive layout a ready draw for their young charges. --Denise Wilms
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-- This uniquely designed book features a series of cutouts stacked so that with each page turn, a layer is removed to reveal yet another picture. Each configuration is an animal: a tiger's face (a circle shape) and two ears disappear with a page turn to leave viewers with a square within which is a mouse. The mouse's square frame, removed, reveals a fox. There are three such series, and each ends with a small round-up of the shapes used so far. That's not all. On the reverse of the turned page is the shape cutout previously removed with the shape's printed name. While the tiger and lion are not easy to identify in their geometrically shaped components, children will readily name the seven others and will delight in identifying both animals and shapes. Boldly designed pages easily carry to the rear of the room during story hours, and brilliant juxtapositions of vibrant primary colors will make children's eyes tingle. --Susan Hepler, formerly at Windsor Public Library, Conn. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Like Suse MacDonald's Alphabatics, an innovative book to stimulate the visual imagination. Ehlert uses apertures through sturdy paper to transform her boldly constructed images: a circle containing a symmetrical pattern--composed of red, orange, and green triangles and circles--believably represents a tiger's face; turning the page to remove the circular hole (labeled ""circle"" on the other side) reveals the same pattern with new ears, now a mouse; the next page turn (square hole) transforms mouse to fox; and at a third page turn, the three shapes used so far are collected and labeled again. Two more sequences add other animals and shapes, including octagon, hexagon, heart, and oval (unfortunately, neither egg-shaped nor an ellipse but a round-ended, straight-sided figure). All the figures formed, as well as the shapes and colors used, are recapitulated on the last three pages. Exciting use of design and color; an intriguing way to introduce or reinforce concepts of shape and color. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
