Frida and Bear Play the Shape Game by Anthony Browne, illustrated by Hanne Bartholin

-


**Before I talk about this book, I have to say that Frida and Bear Play the Shape Game has to be one of the most popular picture books I have read out loud to my students since I started working as a librarian three years ago. Of course, they love the story but what they really love is actually playing the shape game with me after we finish reading the book. If you buy this book, I guarantee that it will be universally adored by anyone seven and under!**

In 2003 Anthony Browne wrote and illustrated The Shape Game, the story of a family that takes a trip to an art museum (the Tate in London, where he was the illustrator-in-residence.) The family, a father, two sons and a mother, are there, reluctantly, because it's how Mom wants to celebrate her birthday. Mom poses questions that inspire her family to think about the art they are viewing and they eventually find themselves in the paintings - with twists and updates here and there. The title of Browne's book comes from a game that Mom teaches them how to play. Using pens and a pad they bought at the museum gift shop, one person draws a shape and the other turns it into something specific. In Frida and Bear Play the Shape Game, Frida teaches this game to bear.




The story is short and sweet. The fun of Frida and Bear Play the Shape Game comes from Bartholin's illustrations and seeing what Bear and Frida make with the shapes they trade back and forth. Bear takes the game from traditional drawing paper to an envelope, then a scrap of paper (in a lovely nod to Browne and the primates that populate his books) to a twig. The final two-page spread shows a variety of drawings that came from playing the Shape Game! 




The Shape Game by Anthony Browne


In my review of Silly Billy by Browne, I also mention several of his other books, including The Shape Game. If you aren't familiar with his amazing body of work, the wonderful details of his illustrations and sensitive, thoughtful stories, I urge you to take a look!

Source: Review Copy

Popular posts from this blog

Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala

-
Image
Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala Review Copy from Abrams Kids I picture-walked Be a Tree! three times before I actually read the words. Felicita Sala's illustrations for Maria Gianferrari's poetic text are mesmerizingly immersive and richly colorful within a palette of earth tones. Throughout the text, Gianferrari, who shares her inspiration for this book in the author's note ( Peter Wohleben's The Hidden Life of Trees ), gently maintains the human connection to trees and the connections (and communications) trees share with each other.  Be a Tree!  begins exuberantly, inviting the reader to "Be a tree! Stand tall. Stretch your branches to the sun. Let your roots curl, coil in the soil to ground you." From your spine/trunk to your skin/bark and your heart/pith, the words carry you inward and then zoom outward and up to the canopy and ultimately, the forest. "You are one of many trees," and our roots "twine with fung
Read more

Under Earth, Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński, 112 pp, RL: ALL AGES

-
Image
Under Earth , Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel  Mizieliński is their fourth book I have reviewed here and their fourth book with the marvelous Big Picture Press , a publisher of oversized, highly illustrated, gorgeous books who believe that books should be "visually intelligent, surprising, and accessible to readers of all ages, abilities and nationalities." BPP definitely achieves this with every book they publish and, if you are a book lover, you will want to seek out all their titles. Under Earth , Under Water will appeal to anyone who likes to look inside things and understand how things work. With Under Earth, Under Water , the Mizielińskis, who have an illustration style that is filled with tiny details and a unique palette, take readers on a detailed journey, from the top of the page to the bottom, over and under land and then sea. The endpapers serve as the introduction and table of contents, with images scattered across the spread, page nu
Read more

Reading Levels: A Quick Guide to Determining if a Book Is Right for Your Reader

-
Image
While I wrote an article titled Reading Levels: How I Assign Reading Levels to Books, How the Publishers Do It and How You Can Help Your Reader Find the Right Book at the Right Time that discusses how reading levels are determined by professionals and amateurs like myself, there is more on this subject to discuss. Determining the reading level of a book from the children's section is never easy, mostly because there are several different standardized methods of determining reading levels. Add to this the fact that knowing their children's reading level is most often the only tool a parent is armed with when exploring the bookstore, library, website, etc, and the job becomes even more difficult. While I think that knowing a child's reading level is a very valuable tool if your child is reading below grade level, I think that it is a secondary consideration when finding books for children reading above, especially well above, grade level because, in most cases, content app
Read more