| 9780316370929 |
| 0316370924 |
Available:*
Library | Material Type | Call Number | Shelf Location | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... East Library | Children's Book | MURR | Children's-J-Easy | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
Searching... East Library | Children's Book | MURR | Children's-J-Easy | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Hunt for shapes of all kinds on this journey through a bustling city, illustrated by four-time Caldecott Honoree Bryan Collier!
From shimmering skyscrapers to fluttering kites to twinkling stars high in the sky, everyday scenes become extraordinary as a young girl walks through her neighborhood noticing exciting new shapes at every turn. Far more than a simple concept book, City Shapes is an explosion of life. Diana Murray's richly crafted yet playful verse encourages readers to discover shapes in the most surprising places, and Bryan Collier's dynamic collages add even more layers to each scene in this ode to city living.
Author Notes
Diana Murray loves to sit on her patio writing stories and poems, especially to the sound of passing showers. She is the author of many children's books, including City Shapes , Grimelda : The Very Messy Witch , Doris the Bookasaurus , and more. Her poems have appeared in magazines such as Highlights for Children, and Spider . Diana grew up in New York City and still lives nearby with her firefighter husband, two daughters, a lizard, and a hamster--all of whom enjoy sunny summer days.
Zoe Persico is a lover of rainstorms rolling in on summer afternoons, and of all things color. She enjoys illustrating for children's books and animation, and some of her clients are Dreamworks TV, Sesame Workshop, American Girl, and more. Zoe grew up in the Midwest, and she currently resides in the Pacific Northwest where the rain never seems to really stop, but gives her plenty of excuses to go stomp in puddles.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Readers are encouraged to view the city as a kaleidoscope of shape and color in this rhyming tour provided by a young girl on the sidewalk and a pigeon soaring above. Elements of urban life, including a mail truck, a pretzel cart, skyscrapers, park benches, street vendors, taxis, the subway, and a street performer, also reveal seven basic shapes. "And nearby, the kites seem to dance in the sky./Some SHAPES in the city are./DIAMONDS that fly." Youngsters will eagerly identify squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, ovals, diamonds, and stars in the busy spreads as well as complete each rhyme to reveal the targeted shape. As night and stars appear in the sky, "the pigeon flies back through the night cityscape/as city lights sparkle, SHAPE after SHAPE./But her heart starts to ache for the SHAPE/she loves best./The SHAPE that is home-/her warm CIRCLE nest.." Collier's rich watercolor and collage spreads feature a child (his four-year-old daughter) as tour guide, smiling and waving us along. The endpapers offer a 3-D geometric world of colorful buildings. Children will enjoy studying the illustrations to identify the various shapes as well as the scattered collage photos of greenery, people, buildings, and cars. VERDICT A colorful look at city life as well as a fun way to teach shapes to young children.-Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools c Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Newcomer Murray's upbeat verses about finding shapes in the city get an extra shot of energy from Caldecott Honoree Collier's (Trombone Shorty) artwork. On the jacket, he paints a girl with brown skin and hair bound up in a ribbon, who looks at readers through a kaleidoscope. "The city is bursting with shapes of each kind./ And if you look closely, who knows what you'll find!" writes Murray as the book begins. Collier's watercolor-and-collage spreads are filled with incident: pedestrians stride by, flags wave, bubbles float, and taxis speed through intersections, with squares, rectangles, and other shapes sometimes highlighted in filmy white. (A minor quibble: the shapes aren't always clearly matched to text, as when a scarf in the section about rectangles is folded like a triangle, or a rectangular subway-car window is pictured with verse about squares.) Collier doesn't just create the girl who does the shape finding; he gives readers a chance to get to know her. As she peers out a window with her kaleidoscope, she almost seems close enough to touch. Ages 3-6. Author's agent: Brianne Johnson, Writers House. Illustrator's agent: Marcia Wernick, Wernick & Pratt Agency. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
In this homage to city life and the powers of observation, a young African American girl tours her neighborhood, noting the shapes she encounters, while a soaring pigeon examines the same area from an aerial perspective. Murray's rhyming couplets introduce squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, ovals, diamonds, and stars, finding examples in packages, skyscrapers, flags, wheels, drum heads, kites, and twinkling lights. Collier's sumptuous watercolor and collage illustrations depict New York City from multiple vantage points and perspectives in photorealistic close-ups of street vendors and their wares, abstract scenes emphasizing particular shapes, aerial and cutaway views representing multiple levels, and kaleidoscopic scenes that merge near and far. Some of the shapes jump out from the page, while others will require some searching. The rhyming text makes this suitable for story hours, but searching for the less obvious shapes will intrigue one-on-one viewers, as well. Pair with Kelly Bingham's Circle, Square, Moose (2014) or Joyce Hesselberth's Shape Shift (2016), additional shapely tales.--Weisman, Kay Copyright 2016 Booklist
