THE WISHING SHELF BOOK AWARDS
30th June 2020
Star Rating 4.5
'Educational, accessible, perfect for young children.'
REVIEW
If you ever thought a 'shape' was just, well, a shape, then you thought wrong. In this delightfully illustrated picture book, Miss Anna not only looks at the circle, the triangle, the oval, and a host of others, she also looks at the origins of the words (Latin, French) and also where you might find them. For example, the square in Latin is quadra and in
French it is esquare. Written in rhyming verse, this is a well-paced, educational picture
book where every shape is 'hidden behind a door'; I liked this, as it grabs the young reader, enticing them to turn the page. The author, with the help of the illustrator, also attempts to give every shape a 'character': a diamond in a hat, a grinning hexagram - it's all good fun. To sum up, I would happily recommend this book to any infant or primary school. It's not overly long, it's very educational and, above all, it's accessible for young children.
An Interview with Miss Anna
An Awarding-winning Author of The Number Story Series
Miss Anna wrote The Shape Story books for her four children, especially for her youngest. We asked her why, since there are already a great many children's books on colors and shapes, thousands in fact, some being more well known than others. At this, she replied that she envisioned a different kind of story-telling. She wanted to write a story that is more than a bulletin board of facts. That is not to say that she does not like facts. She does. Her books are full of "nuggets of knowledge" as she calls it, but they are nuggets packaged naturally within the story. She imagined a book that will speak to the child directly as if the child is actually there with the characters and a story that will be loved by the whole family, even the older siblings.
Like adults, children do not judge a book by its cover. They too gauge the content and how the content is presented, and they are most difficult to please. In fact, they are the harshest critics, and Miss Anna has four of them at home. Searching her mind and heart, she says she wanted to write a story (about colors and shapes) that will be engaging, informative, and educational, and yet still be warm, friendly, welcoming, and full of childlike mirth (for they are still children). She says beautiful illustrations are important, but adds that if the content does not pique the interest or strike the fancy of an adult reader, you can half expect the child to toss that book aside, never to pick it up again. Hence, The Shape Story, which is four stories in all, is the beautiful outcome of her imaginative playing with her children.
So, here there are, four new stories that will sweep your child (and you) into a world of shapes and colors!
The Shape Story 1: The Shapes and Their Names
The Shape Story 2: The Delightful World of 3D Shapes
The Shape Story 3: The Shapes' Creative Color Collection
The Shape Story 4: The Shapes Discover How to Make Colors