Review by Booklist Review
This is more of the same from Jocelyn and Slaughter, but since their previous books for small hands, including Eats (2007), have been so pleasing, that's hardly a drawback. The premise here is straightforward: each turn of the page offers up three things that are alike in some way; there are round things, things that make music, things that fly, and so on. The twist is that one of each group is included in the next, so that the red bird that makes music is also a thing that can fly, and the bee that flies is also a thing that has stripes. Slaughter's painted paper-cut collages are simple but eye-catching: the zebra eats grass before a bright-yellow background, the gleaming white picket fence pops from a fire-engine-red background. The repeated objects also sometimes change color on the next page, so the idea of variation becomes apparent. A nice surprise comes at the end when the apple in the first grouping shows up again in the final grouping and children will be ready to start reading all over again.--Nolan, Abby Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Jocelyn and Slaughter (previously paired for Eats) strikingly introduce the concept of classification. Slaughter's graphic cut-paper compositions command attention with their paint-box-bright colors. The first spread, for example, shows an apple, a blue-and-green planet Earth and a tambourine, against fields of yellow, black and red, respectively, for stop-sign-like impact. "Round things," reads the caption. The next pages show the tambourine again, now with a guitar and a bird. This spread is captioned "things that make music." Always carrying forward one of the three objects from the previous spread, Jocelyn delivers the vital lesson that everyday objects fall into many categories. The concept is clear and the delivery attractive; a book like this is an essential part of the very young child's library. Ages 2-5. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-K-On each spread, simple painted paper cuts depict trios of similar objects in bold primary colors. The book begins with "round things" (a red apple, the Earth, a tambourine) and a page turn connects these items to "things that make music" (another tambourine, a guitar, a bird). Likewise, the bird relates to the following set of "things that fly." Ultimately the idea is brought full circle by linking the last set of objects ("red things") back to the first (the apple). Children will enjoy identifying the associations between the pictures and seeing how the items can be included in differently themed groupings. An appealing and eye-catching addition.-Laura Butler, Mount Laurel Library, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Giving preschoolers and even aging toddlers food for thought, on each page Slaughter and Jocelyn group three itemsall rendered as bright, very simple graphic images in primary colors plus black, white and greenthat share a common characteristic: "round things," "things that make music," "things that fly." To create links between groups, each illustrated group includes one member that reappears on the subsequent spreada tambourine is a "round thing" and a "thing that makes music," a snake is both a "striped thing" and a "long thing" and so on. Unlike the title, which sounds like some sort of pidgin, Jocelyn's terse captions are in plain language; an apple and the Earth are "round things," a dog, an elephant and a chair are "things with four legs." In most cases these are probably superfluous, but at least take away any guesswork. An inviting way of introducing connections and commonalities. (Picture book. 2-4) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
