Shapes and Shapes: TOON Level 1

by Ivan Brunetti

Overview

Who knew shapes could be so much fun?

Respected art professor IVAN BRUNETTI still remembers the fun he had playing with shapes as a kid. In the hands of the author/artist of Wordplay, 3x4, and Comics: Easy as ABC, shapes explode, divide, and multiply, offering young readers a basic yet exciting art and math lesson. Kids will laugh as they learn—and will also see the world in a new way. Brunetti deftly highlights the nature and logic of shapes, laying a foundation for geometry and illustration for readers of all ages!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781662665172
Publisher:	Astra Publishing House
Publication date:	10/03/2023
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	4 - 6 Years

About the Author

Ivan Brunetti lives and works in Chicago as a teacher, illustrator, and cartoonist, usually in that order. He is the author of Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice and Aesthetics: A Memoir, as well as the editor of both volumes of An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories. His most recent books are Wordplay, 3x4, and Comics: Easy as ABC!. His drawings have appeared in the New Yorker and New York Times, among other publications.

Editorial Reviews

08/21/2023

Scattering a range of brightly colored geometric forms on a classroom floor, a brown-skinned teacher invites a room full of students, portrayed with varying skin tones, to “see how many things we can make from these simple shapes.” The kids, equipped with crayons, glue, and scissors, begin by turning the shapes into more complicated ones, then quickly move on to bigger ideas. One brown-skinned, bespectacled student constructs a portrait of “my whole family,” and the class subsequently wrangles the shapes into “a whole neighborhood!” Like many an effective classroom activity, this one also alters the way the students look at the world outside. At recess, the kids observe that basketball features “circles and triangles,” while a soccer ball “has pentagons and hexagons.” And back in class, the students discover that by turning flat shapes into those with volume, they can bring their creations into the 3D realm. Brunetti (Comics: Easy as ABC!) works in digitally colored panels whose forms are all about simple configurations. Even more importantly, he captures the fun of a bunch of kids getting their creativity into tip-top shape. Ages 4–6. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

A Little Mavericks Graphic Novel Reading List​ Selection
A 2023 Booklist Editor's Choice Book

★ "If the Platonic ideal of the young children's comic both helps them interpret their world and introduces new ideas for them to explore and expand on, then Brunetti has brought that conceptual model into actual existence." —Booklist, starred review

“This is the sort of picture book that moves easily from the lap into the world, encouraging children ages 3-6 to recognize the shapes around them hiding in plain sight.” —The Wall Street Journal

"A strong introduction to graphic novels . . . Will have readers eagerly pointing out the shapes around them."—Kirkus Reviews

"Captures the fun of a bunch of kids getting their creativity into tip-top shape."—Publishers Weekly

"Readers are learning all about shapes as the students are . . .  Brunetti’s artwork itself is a sophisticated version of what the kids are doing." — Youth Services Book Review


"Hard to read without immediately being motivated to gather up shapes and a small child to make art." — YA Books Central

"A mathematical masterpiece." — Olivia the Librarian

From the Publisher

2023-08-12
An introduction to circles, squares, triangles, and more.

A teacher and a classroom of children begin noticing shapes around them. An umbrella looks like an octagon; the lenses in the teacher’s sunglasses are shaped like stars. From there the students create images using shapes, notice them on the playground, and build things with three-dimensional cylinders, cones, and cubes. The opening pages are busy: Shapes litter the classroom floor. A particularly compelling illustration shows a grayish piece of artwork, drawn by the kids, depicting the town, followed by an image of the town filled in with colors—and plenty of shapes. Readers looking closely will pick up on clues in the images that help tell the story, like a kid getting whacked by a ball on the playground. Although there isn’t much plot here—no characters are named, and the story is mostly a demonstration of shapes in our surroundings—the story does serve as a strong introduction to graphic novels, balancing full-page images with panels and helping readers navigate the action and home in on details in the larger illustrations. The teacher is brown-skinned, and the students have a variety of skin tones and hair colors, their bodies themselves geometrically composed. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Will have readers eagerly pointing out the shapes around them. (Early reader. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews