Review by Horn Book Review
A fine mess, indeed. Sams things are in a heap. Time to tidy up. Sam doesnt require a bulldozer, or even a broom, because hes a kid with an orderly mind: First he finds Obo the robot, one of a kind. Then two snarling dinosaurs, three little boxes, and four fake foods. He discovers that the categories into which he sorts his things can overlap (Spider Rock joins the other rocks. Sams favorite rock is the round one. He looks for more round things). He discovers that toys can be grouped according to rhyme (he pairs a box with a toy fox) and can be sorted by texture, smell, color, and more. He discovers fine distinctions: there are things with wings that fly (e.g., a paper airplane), things without wings that fly (a superhero), and things with wings that dont fly (a penguin). This entertaining higher-order concept book is propelled by omniscient narration (How many things is that?; What else comes in twos?; Uh-oh) but soars because of Jocelyns invitingly detailed hand-cut paper collages, which reach their greatest glory on a page that resembles a Pac-Man screen on which Sam plays both predator (Some things Sam bites) and prey (And some things bite Sam). Everything ends up back in a heap that Sam transforms into a work of art--and provides a chance for keen-eyed viewers who have taken note of the books subtitle to make sure that no object has been lost in the shuffle. nell beram (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Sam's got a mess, but he knows how to have fun cleaning it up: sorting it!Brown-skinned Sam stands in front of his "heap" of toys, an exuberantly colorful pile that stands out against the muted, neutral backgrounds in Jocelyn's collage illustrations. "First he finds Obo the robot, one of a kind. Then two snarling dinosaurs, three little boxes, and four fake foods. How many things is that?" From this simple opening, Jocelyn takes Sam and readers through many permutations of organizational possibilities for his stuff: rocks, round things, things that come in twos; things that are striped; things that are soft or fuzzy or smelly; and so on. Each double-page spread offers at least one sorting possibility and myriad opportunities for involvement. Items that rhyme are paired visually but not textually, inviting readers to vocalize "cat" and "bat," "fox" and "box." The homely hodgepodge of mediaphotographs, spare drawings, intricate paper-collagecombines with open-ended questions ("What else floats?") to practically beg readers to look outside the book for examples from their own lives to add to Sam's categories or start their own. Layouts are varied and inventive; early on, baker's twine makes an elegant Venn diagram, and later, a Pac-Man maze includes both "things Sam bites" and "some things [that] bite Sam." A deceptively simple, joyous introduction to set theory, with lots of other concept practice as a bonus. (Picture book. 3-5) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
