Horn Book (Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

In a companion book to Triangle, Square pushes square boulders to a hilltop. Seeing a resemblance between Square and the block he's pushing, his friend Circle calls Square an artistic genius. Before Square knows it, he's agreed to create a sculpture in Circle's likeness. Angled lines and white space direct readers' eyes across each page, and short sentences, smart dialogue, and word repetition keep the story steadily moving.

Kirkus Reviews

In the wake of Triangle (2017), a further raft of ontological posers in stripped-down geometric garb.Square, an unreflective sort, regards hauling large cubes of rock from the depths of his secret cave to a hilltop every day as his "work." He is set to a new task, though, after Circle praises him as a "sculptor" and a "genius," then commissions a portrait. Cluelessly setting to with a hammer and chisel to carve a "perfect" representation of Circle from a stone block, Square is left at the end of the day in the middle of a ring of rubble. Despairingly, he falls asleep as rain begins to fall. Next morning the despair is still there—so when Circle floats up and sees her reflection in the puddle that's accumulated overnight her response is unexpected: "It is perfect," she says. "You are a genius." Barnett's closing "But was he really?" leaves readers (those who have the appropriate patience and experience, anyway) to judge for themselves. Square's downcast eyes as he looks at his own reflection in the puddle heighten the ambiguity. With typically deceptive minimalism Klassen places a few flat, blocky shapes on the white pages to suggest the physical landscape, angling Square's body and glance to convey the emotional one. Humor is in the details: a bit of twig that catches on harried Square's head and stays there; the shadow that appears beneath Circle as she floats along through the air.For all its brevity, chockablock with philosophical topics to ponder and debate. (Picture book. 10-adult)

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

Square, who squabbled with Triangle in the first volume of Barnett and Klassen-s Shape trilogy, suffers from a case of imposter syndrome in this second picture book offering. Circle sees Square pushing stone blocks one after the other to the top of a hill among huge, ghostly boulders. She mistakes them for self-portraits--You are a genius! I did not know you were a sculptor!--and insists that Square must make a sculpture of her. Anxiety overwhelms him. Slashes of rain cut across the spreads as the stone disintegrates under his hammer and chisel, amid his growing despair. In the morning, his circular pile of rubble holds a pool of rainwater, which reflects Circle-s image as she gazes downward. -It is perfect,- Circle gushes. -You are a genius.- Is Circle a good friend who sees the worth in Square-s work that he can-t see himself? Or is she just a flatterer? Poor Square isn-t sure, and readers aren-t, either. Square-s efforts to please are equal parts hilarious and cringeworthy, and the moment he topples over in exhaustion is comic gold. The story-s decidedly ambiguous conclusion leaves the door open for questions about what it means to be an artist-and that-s the whole point. Ages 5-9. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (May)

ALA Booklist (Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2018)

Readers will remember Square as the victim of a sneaky trick in Triangle (2017), but here they find him peacefully at work, contentedly pushing square-shaped blocks up a hill. He's interrupted when Circle floats by and mistakes Square's rock pile for fine art. Convinced he is a genius sculptor, Circle tells him to make a sculpture of herself by the next day and drifts away before Square has time to respond. Having only just learned what a sculptor is, Square eyes a block, pulls out a hammer and chisel, and starts tentatively chipping away at it. He works into the night and through a rainstorm, until all that's left of the block are some very un-circle-like fragments, and there's nothing to be done but lie down in a puddle in defeat. But the morning reveals he might be a genius after all. Funny and lightly philosophical, Barnett's story gets an extra punch of hilarity with Klassen's minimalist graphite-and-watercolor artwork. A must for Triangle fans that will leave them wondering how this geometric drama will end.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: This tireless, award-winning creative team works deadpan magic like no other, and fans will scoop up this second installment in a planned trilogy.