Starred Review ALA Booklist (Mon Jun 05 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Starred Review Higgins expands her exploration of colors, shapes, and patterns in this companion to Circle under Berry (2021). She pairs the simple, rhythmic, occasionally rhyming text with cut-paper collage artwork (hand-painted and digitally enhanced), in which she creates recognizable animals from basic shapes. For example, "turtle is a circle // circle is a snail // green circles / orange circles // circle circle square," depicts the mentioned items in vivid greens and oranges set off against a white background. The concepts and artwork become more complex as the book progresses: "can you sort by color? / can you sort by size? / can you sort by shape / or find the animals with eyes?" invites readers to participate in an "I spy" type of game. Other spreads ask readers to distinguish birds and mice (all pink triangles), compare the number of stripes on a variety of animals, and determine which animal has the most wiggles (curves). Other concepts introduced include comparative sizes, indefinite quantities (all, none, some), and vocabulary of scale ("teeny tiny" versus "huge enormous"). Ideal as a read-aloud, this should have wide appeal: lap-sit toddlers will enjoy the sing-song verses, preschoolers will focus on the shape and color concepts, kindergartners will learn simple ways to draw animals, and emergent readers will appreciate the predictable text.

Horn Book (Tue May 09 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Higgins's companion to Circle Under Berry (rev. 11/21) invites an encore exploration of shapes, colors, counting, and creatures with a healthy dose of rhythmic fun and conceptual play. Two circles inhabit the first double-page spread: "turtle is a circle / circle is a snail." The pages are soon populated by circles, squares, and animals of many sizes and colors ("owl is a square"). The book first focuses attention on sorting shape, size, and color before moving on to quantitative terms (some, none, all, etc.): "all of these are ovals / three of them are bees / some of these are octagons / two of those are green." Comparative adjectives ("wiggly wigglier wiggliest") add to this concept book's complexity. Higgins's simple but effective collaged and digitally assembled illustrations focus attention on the objects at hand. Subsequent rereadings will reinforce the message that there's never simply one way to look at things. Grace McKinney Beermann

Kirkus Reviews

The Ehlert-Gravett mashup you didn't know you needed.It's likely many readers will see the influence of Lois Ehlert in Higgins' collage art-cut from hand-painted paper and then assembled digitally. The simple, colorful forms that make up the illustrations in this concept book invite readers to play an I-spy sort of game prompted by text, with questions like, "Can you sort by color?" "Can you sort by size?" and "Can you sort by shape or find the animals with eyes?" Other parts of the text echo Emily Gravett's playful storytime staple Orange Pear Apple Bear (2006): "Turtle is a circle / circle is a snail // green circles / orange circles / circle circle square." Higgins guides readers to engage with the pictures and see how they visually represent the singsong, descriptive words. It's a whimsical romp; on one page, a series of pink triangles paired with orange circles evokes both rodents and birds ("all of these are triangles / all of these are pink / some of them go / tweet-tweet-tweet / some of them go squeak"). Combined, words and pictures deliver a pleasing, interactive game of a read sure to inspire conversation and laughter from the readers who encounter this picture book. (This book was reviewed digitally.)Will quickly become a read-aloud favorite. (Picture book. 1-5)

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

Foregrounding brightly painted paper collage elements trimmed into crisp geometric shapes and placed on white backgrounds à la Eric Carle, this polished follow-up to Circle Under Berry again plays with visual images by challenging readers to classify them in various ways. Higgins composes a square blue owl with big googly eyes; the resulting shape might be categorized as blue, or an animal, or a square. Throughout, thumping, chantable lines (“big bigger biggest/ owl square purple”) explore sameness and variation, comparatives and quantifiers. A spread studded with various shapes asks, “Can you sort by color?// Can you sort by size?” Another spread features circle and square animals and shapes of sundry hues, asking “Can you sort by shape or/ find the animals with eyes?” And yet another juxtaposes striped tigers and spotted ladybugs: “Who’s stripiest?/ Who’s spottiest?” Alongside lines that veer into the whimsical realm of nonsense rhyme (“What is one?/ What is some?/ Where is all and/ where is none?”), largely accessible concept-based images and text promise wide read-and-respond appeal. Ages 2–4. Agent: Rubin Pfeffer, Rubin Pfeffer Content. (May)