Lots of Dots by Craig Frazier

This bright and fanciful book takes dots to a new level, celebrating all of the ways that dots and circles are in our life.  There are dots that are buttons, dots as flowers, dots as scoops of ice cream!  All in bright, vivacious colors that add to the joyful nature of this picture book.  The rhyming text is very simple, allowing the emphasis to be on the illustrations that are colorful, graphic and very fun.  This is a book that will have readers and listeners smiling at every page.

Frazier’s illustrations here have a great style that is very modern and still warm and friendly.  The humans in the illustrations are shown as a single color, eliminating any racial context and creating a book that is welcoming for any child.  Done in crisp white with bright colors, the pages almost shout with energy. 

Perfect for sharing with a group of toddlers or preschoolers, this book would  make a great jumping off point for crafts using round stickers or stamps.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from Chronicle Books.

• Also reviewed by Good Books for Kids

Shapes That Roll by Karen Nagel, illustrations by Steve Wilson

Follow brightly-colored Triangle, Circle and Square as they take you on a tour through the world of shapes.  Some shapes roll, some don’t.  Some stacks, some don’t.  Some open and close, some are in pieces, and other are heavy.  This book doesn’t tell readers the names of the shapes until the very end, allowing the text of the book to be more playful.  It also is built for conversation about the shapes readers are seeing, from basic shapes to cubes and spheres too.  This silly, colorful book about shapes is playful fun for young children.

Nagel’s rhymes are simple and are more about moving the reader through the world of shapes than naming the shapes themselves.  The first and last pages are filled with information while the bulk of the book is lighter fare.  Wilson’s illustrations really bring the book to life with bright colors, plenty of action, and lots of shapes to discuss and name.  I actually like the format of not naming shape after shape in the text of the book, allowing for a more interactive read with children.

A lap book rather than a group read, the friendly shapes that host this book will take readers on a shape adventure.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from library copy.