Shape by Shape
Introducing a series of basic shapes, die-cuts on sturdy square pages reveal, piece by piece, a friendly dinosaur. The colorful shapes—circle, triangle, crescent, semicircle, oval, and diamond—are presented on the inside cover, followed by the opening question: “Do you know who I am?” Each vibrantly colored left-hand page contains a bit of text, while the black right-hand pages feature the cutouts, each revealing a new aspect of the mystery beast, in the manner of Ed Emberley’s Go Away, Big Green Monster! (1993). A fold-out triple-page spread at the end shows the whole dinosaur, an appealingly rounded creature made up of all the various shapes, with the addition of a big red heart. The saturated colors, including four different shades of green, add to the appeal of this playful picture book. Small readers will probably focus more on the monster than the titular concept in this entertaining and modestly educational title. Preschool-Grade 2. --Kathleen Isaacs