ROUND written by Jennifer Ward, illustrated by Lisa Congdon
ROUND
written by Jennifer Ward
illustrated by Lisa Congdon
Review Copy from Beach Lane Books
Shapes in nature, patterns all around and gentle rhymes that carry you along - these are elements that make up a handful of fantastic concept books, like ROUND. Warner's words lead readers out the door and on a treasure hunt while Congdon's illustrations burst with patterns, designs and colors. Ward's Author's Note tells readers that "roundness is found everywhere in nature, but not necessarily as a perfect circle." She invites readers to look for round in the "curl of a wave and the coil of a shell," and reminds us that nature's seasons occur in a "cycle of roundness, circling around again and again," similar to the water cycle and even the shapes of the planets and their orbits. These ideas are reflected by Congdon, who starts and (almost) ends in the same natural setting, illustrating the cycle of the seasons in between. On the final two page spread of the book where the last word is ROUND, readers are taken out into space, with the solar system and the orbits of the planets. This is definitely a book that will get little listeners reading and thinking and, best of all, exploring!
