Horn Book

Sixteen labeled shapes (circles, arcs, rectangles, etc.) wait on the left-hand page while a mouse directs them to join him, one by one, on the right. As the shapes bounce, roll, and slither to the right, they form an animal, eventually recognizable as a monkey. Fleming's cut-paper collage and highly saturated colors steal the show from the rhyming text.

ALA Booklist (Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)

In this early concept book created by the masterful Fleming, a mouse ringmaster opens the shenanigans: "SHAPES are in place and ready to go!" An assortment of neatly labeled shapes such as ovals, circles, and rectangles are featured on the next page. Then the fun gets started: "Slide, SQUARE, and start the show!" Other actions include "Bounce, OVAL, up and down" and "Roll, CIRCLE, round and round." Kids will likely wiggle around, too, as they learn the shapes and act out the motions in the rhyming directives. As the shapes combine, a figure emerges: a monkey! He looks delighted, but the mouse looses control, careening across the page, and crashes into the monkey, sending the individual pieces flying. Tots will collapse in peals of laughter. If the end feels a bit rushed ter a cat is created, the mouse seems to have sudden success rebuilding the monkey is is still bound to be a repeat favorite.

School Library Journal (Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)

PreS-Gr 1 Pulp painting and collage art prevail in this creative game. On the first spread, a motorized mouse figure instructs shapesa small arc, triangle, oval, large arc, circle, two small ovals, two tiny circles, two big rectangles, two thin rectangles, and a squareto rearrange themselves piece by piece to form a monkey. Mouse and Monkey accidentally collide, and the pieces assemble into a cat, then quickly return to the intended form. Fleming's active verbs (bounce, slide, slither, flip) create verbal energy to reflect the visual fun that keeps fresh with varying colored backgrounds. Readers can seek and find the shapes on each page, and assembling them in different ways creates an engaging interactive experience.— Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA