From simple to complex, and everything in between, these stories present shapes at their creative best
Friendshape: An uplifting celebration of friendship
Author: Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Illustrator: Tom Lichtenheld
Publisher: Scholastic Press, an Imprint of Scholastic, Inc.
Recommended Age Range: 3 to 6
Website
Just the title makes you smile, and once you open it, well…you won’t be disappointed. With the help of a circle, rectangle, triangle, and square, children will learn not only how to make a friend, and be a friend, but what friendship really feels like – no matter the shape they’re in.☺ Brilliant.
Awards: Chosen for 2016 Illinois Reads PreK List; National Parenting Publications Silver Award 2015
Lines Everywhere (Jimi Lee Board Books)
Author: Jimi Lee
Illustrator: Jimi Lee
Publisher: Michael Neugebauer Edition
Recommended Age Range: 3 to 5
My Heart Is Like a Zoo
Author: Michael Hall
Illustrator: Michael Hall
Publisher: Greenwillow Books, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Recommended Age Range: 1 to 5
Through simple rhyme, and animals designed from the heart, this lyrical prose shows – and shares – the feelings found in all of us.
Awards: IRA Primary Nonfiction Book Award
Perfect Square
Author: Michael Hall
Illustrator: Michael Hall
Publisher: Greenwillow Books, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Recommended Age Range: 4 to 8
Website
Perfect Square is about a square that gets crumpled, cut, poked, torn, shredded, snipped, and shattered. Never discouraged, the square simply turns itself into something new and creative every time. A surprise ending makes this book a big hit.
Awards: The Washington Post’s Best Children’s Books of 2011; 2011 Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens-Up to Seven (Recommended); 2011 Minnesota Book Award-Children’s Literature (Winner)
Pick a Circle, Gather Squares: A Fall Harvest of Shapes
Author: Felicia Sanzari Chernesky
Illustrator: Susan Swan
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Recommended Age Range: 4 to 7
A fall harvest turns out to be the perfect way to learn about shapes. A clever book for those who love this time of year and all it brings.
Awards: Goldfinch Award 2015-2016
Press Here
Author: Herve Tullet
Illustrator: Herve Tullet
Publisher: Handprint Books, an Imprint of Chronicle Books
Recommended Age Range: 2 to 5
In this brilliant book, Herve Tullet shows that, with just the right amount of questions, directions, compliments, and color, a circle can capture your child’s imagination with “oohs,” “aahs,” laughter, and surprise. A great way to teach, learn, and be entertained. Don’t miss it!
Awards: A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year; A Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Book of the Year
The Greedy Triangle
Author: Marilyn Burns
Illustrator: Gordon Silveria
Publisher: Scholastic Inc. (Pbk.)
Recommended Age Range: 4 to 8
This story – a geometry lesson with a moral – involves a triangle who is, simply, not happy with his shape so he keeps adding lines and angles. While, at first, it’s a good idea, it doesn’t end so well. A great story about being happy with who you are.
Windblown
Author: Edouard Manceau (trans. by Sarah Quinn)
Illustrator: Edouard Manceau
Publisher: Owlkids Books Inc.
Recommended Age Range: 3 to 7
Take seven simple shapes, and a very imaginative mind, and you have Windblown. When a variety of animals begin to “own” the shapes, it is, ultimately (and surprisingly), not an animal who did all the work. A book that doesn’t end with a period, but a question mark, to inspire your child to make their own unique creation from these very same patterns.
Awards: 2016 CLEL Bell Award (Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy)