ALA Booklist (Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

"Two, four, six. / Look at all the bricks!" An entire community rallies to make, stack, transport, and lay bricks in a variety of structures in this cheery counting book. The process begins small but then quickly grows as more and more bricks are needed to build "Grand hotels. / Wishing wells. / Railroad yards. / Boulevards. / Fountains! Pools! / Public schools!" Cyrus arranges a lively mix of four-line verses and limericks that serves a dual purpose, applying practical application to the usefulness of bricks while cleverly finding a way to engage young readers in counting. Bold text with varying font sizes adorns scenes of gradually escalating construction, staffed with workers young and old, male and female, with a wide variety of skin tones, and all wearing the same apparel but keeping to different tasks. Readers will have fun shouting out repetitive lines and locating specific workers from page to page. The bouncy rhythm and energetic action make this a fantastic pick for a group story time.

Horn Book (Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

Five, ten, / fifteen, twenty. / Stacks of bricks, / bricks aplenty!

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Cyrus elevates the humble brick in more ways than one in an effervescent picture book set at a busy construction site, where hard hat-wearing men, women, and children build a palatial structure. First, though, the bricks need to be made: -Dig the clay./ Squish it thick./ Take a mold and make a brick./ Dump it out./ Let it dry./ Stoke the oven way up high,- writes Cyrus. There-s an impressive dimensionality to the structures on display and beauty in the subtle variations in the bricks- rosy hues. Readers aren-t explicitly asked to do any counting, but it-s almost impossible to resist diving into the architecturally theatrical images to tally the arches, columns, and porticos that take shape. Cyrus-s rollicking rhymes (-Two, four, six./ A million, billion bricks./ Columns, walls, shopping malls,/ halls of politics-) and elegant artwork should delight playroom block stackers and someday builders and architects alike. Ages 4-7. (Oct.)

School Library Journal (Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

PreS-Gr 2 Builders. Counters. Gather round to share this book where bricks abound. As workers make bricks, mix mortar, and build increasingly complex structures, Cyrus's pulsing rhythm and infectious rhyme drive their efforts forward. Six bricks on the first pages grow to piles of tens, patterns of four, then hundreds forming arches and stairs. Against the earth-tone palette of the bricks themselves, splotches of color from hard hats and overalls identify the laborers. Among the workers who reappear in many scenes are the original threea boy, a man, and a womanwho can be spotted on each spread. Variations in type size automatically generate emphasis in read-aloud renditions, which seem essential. Individual readers can peruse the complex illustrations of building sites for increased enjoyment. The impeccable design is apparent even on the title pages, where bricks form words and the youngest worker walks past a window. VERDICT This impressive melding of illustrations and text that celebrates hard work and building deserves a place in general collections and on read-aloud shelves.— Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University Library, Mankato