Go, Shapes, Go!

by Denise Fleming, Denise Fleming (Illustrator)

Overview

Join a group of fun-loving shapes as they collaborate and create in this picture book from a Caldecott Honoree.

Come along on a creative adventure with a gang of saucy shapes—and a mischievous mouse who wants to play too. Meet circles, rectangles, ovals, arcs, and a triangle and a square as well. Wait till you see what this crowd can make when they’re all working together!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442482401
Publisher:	Beach Lane Books
Publication date:	10/07/2014
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 11.50(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD270L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Denise Fleming has written and illustrated numerous celebrated books, including 5 Little Ducks; Go, Shapes, Go!; underGROUND; SHOUT!; Sleepy, Oh So Sleepy; Time to Sleep; The Everything Book; Alphabet Under Construction; Count!; In the Tall, Tall Grass; In the Small, Small Pond, which received a Caldecott Honor; and This Is the Nest That Robin Built. She lives in Toledo, Ohio, with her husband, David Powers, with whom she often collaborates.

Denise Fleming has written and illustrated numerous celebrated books, including 5 Little Ducks; Go, Shapes, Go!; underGROUND; SHOUT!; Sleepy, Oh So Sleepy; Time to Sleep; The Everything Book; Alphabet Under Construction; Count!; In the Tall, Tall Grass; In the Small, Small Pond, which received a Caldecott Honor; and This Is the Nest That Robin Built. She lives in Toledo, Ohio, with her husband, David Powers, with whom she often collaborates.

Editorial Reviews

In this early concept book created by the masterful Fleming, a mouse ringmaster opens the shenanigans: “SHAPES are in place and ready to go!” An assortment of neatly labeled shapes such as ovals, circles, and rectangles are featured on the next page. Then the fun gets started: “Slide, SQUARE, and start the show!” Other actions include “Bounce, OVAL, up and down” and “Roll, CIRCLE, round and round.” Kids will likely wiggle around, too, as they learn the shapes and act out the motions in the rhyming directives. As the shapes combine, a figure emerges: a monkey! He looks delighted, but the mouse looses control, careening across the page, and crashes into the monkey, sending the individual pieces flying. Tots will collapse in peals of laughter...bound to be a repeat favorite.

Booklist 10/1/14

Pulp painting and collage art prevail in this creative game. On the first spread, a motorized mouse figure instructs shapes—a small arc, triangle, oval, large arc, circle, two small ovals, two tiny circles, two big rectangles, two thin rectangles, and a square—to rearrange themselves piece by piece to form a monkey. Mouse and Monkey accidentally collide, and the pieces assemble into a cat, then quickly return to the intended form. Fleming’s active verbs (bounce, slide, slither, flip) create verbal energy to reflect the visual fun that keeps fresh with varying colored backgrounds. Readers can seek and find the shapes on each page, and assembling them in different ways creates an engaging interactive experience.–Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA

September 10, 2014 - School Library Journal

"Fleming's signature pulp-painted backgrounds set the stage for a performance featuring an assemblage of shapes; created from patterned handmade papers, the forms are choreographed in their activity by a madcap mouse on wheels. . . . Children will enjoy predicting at various points in the narrative. . . . Motion lines drawn with pastels combine with expressive verbs, rhyming couplets and playful phrases to animate the narrative: "Bibbity bop!" Although Fleming presents a veritable smorgasbord of early learning (shapes, colors, directions and concepts), there is also a dramatic arc with tension and humor. . . . The title will surely inspire children to create and deconstruct their own geometric dramas."

August 2014 Kirkus Reviews

2014-07-16
Fleming's signature pulp-painted backgrounds set the stage for a performance featuring an assemblage of shapes; created from patterned handmade papers, the forms are choreographed in their activity by a madcap mouse on wheels. "Slide, SQUARE, and start the show!" he cries, zooming around the double-page spreads. The labeled shapes, from "small ovals" to "thin rectangles," cross each gutter from verso to recto as the pages turn, until the contours of a creature are discernable. Children will enjoy predicting at various points in the narrative; a monkey would be the correct guess for the first animal. Motion lines drawn with pastels combine with expressive verbs, rhyming couplets and playful phrases to animate the narrative: "Bibbity bop!" Although Fleming presents a veritable smorgasbord of early learning (shapes, colors, directions and concepts), there is also a dramatic arc with tension and humor. When the mouse careens into the loosely placed papers, they scatter and re-form—into a cat! The denouement is a bit untidy, leaving readers with inquiring minds questioning what happens to the feline, after a page turn reveals a new monkey made with different paper, but they will feel relief that all's well that ends well. The title will surely inspire children to create and deconstruct their own geometric dramas. (Picture book. 2-6)

Kirkus Reviews