Sam Sorts

by Marthe Jocelyn

Overview

Marthe Jocelyn is back with another clever concept book to follow Hannah's Collections, Ones and Twos and Where Do You Look? This time, she tackles counting and categories.


Sam's things are in a heap. Time to tidy up! He starts to organize his things, but quickly runs into trouble. He can make a pile of black and white things. But the penguin also belongs in the things with wings pile. He can make a pile of rocks. But the round rock also belongs in the round things pile. How will he ever sort his 100 things? Marthe Jocelyn takes a fun look at categories and counting in this very cleverly conceived story. Kids will delight in the cut-paper images of everything from a zipper pull to a robot, and Sam's surprising solution makes for a tidy end to this unique story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101918050
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	02/14/2017
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,051,170
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Toronto-born MARTHE JOCELYN is the award-winning author and illustrator of over twenty books, including Viminy Crowe's Comic Book and What We Hide. Her picture book Hannah's Collections was short-listed for the Governor General's Literary Award for Illustration. Her novel Mable Riley won the inaugural TD Canadian Children's Literature Award. Marthe is the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Vicky Metcalf Award for her body of work.

Editorial Reviews

SELECTION - CBC Most Anticipated Books of 2016

PRAISE FOR Sam Sorts:

"A deceptively simple, joyous introduction to set theory, with lots of other concept practice as a bonus." —Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews 

"In her inimitable way, [Jocelyn's] created (yet another) book that satisfies both simple and sophisticated readings." —The Toronto Star

"Marthe Jocelyn takes a fun look at categories and counting in this very cleverly conceived story. Kids will delight in the cut-paper images of everything from a zipper pull to a robot, and Sam’s surprising solution makes for a tidy end to this unique story." —The Children's Book Review

"A decided 5 stars." —Reviews in Chalk

PRAISE FOR Ones and Twos:

"This delightful concept book brings visual literacy to the forefront . . . The simple descriptive verses . . . are spot-on to reinforce images of numeracy, sorting, paring, common-object recognition, and the daily lives of young children. The charming collages are the stars of the show and will inspire curiosity." —Starred Review, School Library Journal

"Sophisticated and yet endearingly simple, Ones and Twos can be enjoyed by both very young children and the adults who read it with them." —Starred Review, Quill & Quire

"Marthe Jocelyn's text is perfect in its simplicity, the short phrases and vocabulary just right for toddler audiences, while the rhythm and rhyme are spot-on . . . a visual feast of colors, patterns and textures." —Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

03/01/2017
PreS-Gr 1—Young Sam's possessions are piled high, and he needs to tidy up, but where to start? He begins the arduous task of cleaning up and "finds Obo the Robot, one of a kind. Then two snarling dinosaurs, three little boxes, and four fake foods. How many things is that?," thus starting the process of sorting his toys into various categories. Young readers will learn that items can be sorted by shape, rhyming pairs, and other descriptive and physical characteristics. The collage illustrations accurately represent the innumerable objects that gather in a preschooler's room. While each page shows a different type of sorting arrangement, there are also open-ended questions that allow readers to extend the book with additional language through conversation. VERDICT Recommended as an additional purchase for picture book collections with a focus on concepts or to complement an early learning mathematical storytime.—Kristen Todd-Wurm, Middle Country Public Library, NY

School Library Journal

★ 2016-12-26
Sam's got a mess, but he knows how to have fun cleaning it up: sorting it!Brown-skinned Sam stands in front of his "heap" of toys, an exuberantly colorful pile that stands out against the muted, neutral backgrounds in Jocelyn's collage illustrations. "First he finds Obo the robot, one of a kind. Then two snarling dinosaurs, three little boxes, and four fake foods. How many things is that?" From this simple opening, Jocelyn takes Sam and readers through many permutations of organizational possibilities for his stuff: rocks, round things, things that come in twos; things that are striped; things that are soft or fuzzy or smelly; and so on. Each double-page spread offers at least one sorting possibility and myriad opportunities for involvement. Items that rhyme are paired visually but not textually, inviting readers to vocalize "cat" and "bat," "fox" and "box." The homely hodgepodge of media—photographs, spare drawings, intricate paper-collage—combines with open-ended questions ("What else floats?") to practically beg readers to look outside the book for examples from their own lives to add to Sam's categories or start their own. Layouts are varied and inventive; early on, baker's twine makes an elegant Venn diagram, and later, a Pac-Man maze includes both "things Sam bites" and "some things [that] bite Sam." A deceptively simple, joyous introduction to set theory, with lots of other concept practice as a bonus. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews