Dot

by Patricia Intriago, Patricia Intriago (Illustrator)

Overview

Spare, rhythmic text and pairs of simple circular shapes convey opposite relationships in the arc of a day in this very simple concept book.

Dots here, dots there, you can see dots everywhere! Some are loud, and some are quiet. Some are happy, and some are sad. Some dots even taste yummy, while others taste bad.

Graphic designer Patricia Intriago sets bold, circular shapes against a stark white background to emphasize opposite dot relationships.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374318352
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	08/30/2011
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Patricia Intriago is a graphic designer and the owner of Intriago Design LLC. Dot is her first book. Patricia lives with her husband and their two sons in Tenafly, New Jersey.

Reading Group Guide

Teachers,
In Dot, graphic designer Patricia Intriago presents bold circles on a crisp white background to introduce opposite paired concepts such as slow/fast, happy/sad, loud/quiet, and hungry/full in a rhyming text. This intriguing book will serve as a springboard for engaging classroom activities for students ages five to eight in science (kinetics and phases of the moon), mathematics (geometric shapes), language arts (vocabulary development), art (shapes and painting techniques), and many areas of complex and critical thinking.

Editorial Reviews

In her debut, graphic designer Intriago explores dots as a graphic designer might, crisply and systematically. The text begins like a P.D. Eastman classic ("Dot. Stop dot. Go dot. Slow dot. Fast dot"). White pages with simple, graphic, black shapes communicate their messages like signs. "Slow dot" hasn't made it all the way onto the left page yet; "ast dot," with lines coming off it, speeds off the other edge. Thoughts about dots grow more complex: "This dot is yummy" shows a large black dot with a bite taken out of it; "This dot tastes bad" shows the same bitten-into dot, this time with the discarded bite lying beside it. Occasionally the protocol is enlivened with photographs, a visual "kaboom" amid the overall air of restraint ("Got dots," says a picture of a Dalmatian; "Not dots" shows a striped zebra), but it's back to black and white as the book bids goodnight: "Dots up in the sky so bright/ twinkle as we say goodnight." And indeed, as might be expected from a book this elemental, there's something restful about it. Ages 3–6. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Ever stop to consider what an expressive, malleable entity a dot can be? Graphic designer Intriago opens with an interplay of colors, simple lines, and dots that lays out some familiar conventions in contrasting pairs.” —BCCB

“I'm guessing the graphics are what will initially attract folks to Dot. They are understated and perfect. But for me, the real revelation is the subtle and clever text. Classic Ruth Krauss comes to mind and I can't help giggling every time I read it.” —Lane Smith, author of It's a Book

“Patricia Intriago's Dot is absolutely wonderful as it combines charm, humor and graphic design at its best. It made me smile!” —Laura Vaccaro Seeger, author of The Hidden Alphabet

“…this is simple, surprising graphic design that will wake up even jaded readers to the creative possibilities inherent in the most basic of shapes.” —Booklist Online

“On a purely artistic level, it's all about perception, how we can see the same thing differently depending on context and composition. Intriago's accompanying text helps us share her vision, but it also serves to keep us a little off-center, as she offers a few predictable rhymes but avoids others. Just when you think you know what the circle is going to do, it goes and hides behind a square.” —Horn Book Magazine

“Children will encounter ample ways to interact with this incredibly elegant, clever, and delightful concept book.” —School Library Journal, starred review

“The delightful bits are Intriago's mid-book leaps away from her own setup. Out of the blue, photographed human hands appear to poke a hard and a soft dot, and "Got dots"—a Dalmatian photo—contrasts with "Not dots"—a zebra. These diversions are surprisingly funny.” —Kirkus

From the Publisher

PreS-Gr 1—In this whimsical book about opposites, each dot acts as a visual analogy. Simplicity equals accessibility, but it also denotes depth of thought. Even two- and three-year-olds will make astute observations. Visually announcing the morning, the story begins with a large, shining, cadmium yellow dot on a cyan blue background with the simple text, "Dot." Humor prevails on one spread that contrasts a chewed dot: "This dot is yummy," with a chewed dot and spit-out piece, "This dot tastes bad." Another unique spread is tactile in its rendition of "Hard dot," which does not yield under the pressure of a small photographed finger pressing down, opposite "Soft dot," which does yield like a soft rubber ball. Most of the book is in black and white unless there is a reason for color, as on the "Stop dot" and "Go dot" or on the "Hurt dot" and "Heal dot" pages. Band-Aid and boo-boo stories, and countless others, will pour forth from young audiences. Children will encounter ample ways to interact with this incredibly elegant, clever, and delightful concept book.—Sara Lissa Paulson, American Sign Language and English Lower School PS 347, New York City

School Library Journal