Shapes and Shapes by Ivan Brunetti

Shapes and Shapes by Ivan Brunetti. Toon Books, 2023. 9781662665172

Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4

Format: Hardcover graphic novel

Genre: Easy reader

What did you like about the book? A teacher drops a pile of shapes on the floor of the classroom and shows her students circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, hexagons and more. Then she invites them to put the shapes together in different combinations to create pictures: a brown skinned girl creates her family; a black kid makes a car; another kid creates a bus; and someone adds the people. At recess, the kids notice all of the shapes on the playground. Back inside, shapes are assembled in three dimensions to make spheres.

Although there’s not really a story, there’s something appealing in Brunetti’s uniform bobble-headed characters. Readers are learning all about shapes as the students are, and we see their creative teacher spurring them to put the shapes together to discover other shapes. It’s fun that Brunetti’s artwork itself is a sophisticated version of what the kids are doing. Pages have one to four panels only, with several panoramas that take advantage of the horizontal format, making it easy to use the book for a read aloud, a one to one, or as independent reading for a kid willing to take on pronouncing all the words for shapes. Younger readers will enjoy pointing out the many shapes throughout the pages.

Anything you didn’t like about it? No

To whom would you recommend this book? For new readers who need to bone up on their shapes, ages 5-7.

Who should buy this book? Elementary school and public libraries

Where would you shelve it? Graphic early readers

Should we (librarians/readers) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? No

Reviewer’s Name, Library (or school), City and State: Stephanie Tournas, Robbins Library, Arlington, MA

Date of review: September 16, 2023