Review by Booklist Review
Mr. Round and Mr. Square are next-door neighbors who are different in many ways. Fitti's illustrations cleverly make everything from the house to the car to the flowers to the pets correspond to the owner's shape. Beyond the differences in looks, the two neighbors also have opposite points of view (literally!) about almost everything. They cannot agree on whether a car is coming or going, if a bird is near or far, the order of animals in a line, or even the color of a penguin. The illustrations show the reasons for these disagreements: a car zooms toward one house and away from the other, a bird hovers close to one house and far from the other, Mr. Round and Mr. Square live at opposite ends of the animal lineup, and the penguin's black back faces one house while its white belly faces the other. Together, the text and the illustrations offer a robust and amusing opportunity to explore why people might have varying ideas about the world, without becoming didactic. In the end, the neighbors do agree on two facts: Mr. Square is square, and Mr. Round is round. A fabulous fable about points of view and a creative lesson on opposites.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
It's all in how you look at things. Orange-skinned Mr. Round and beige-skinned Mr. Square live opposite each other. Everything about them suits their respective names: Mr. Round's face, house, and car are round. Mr. Square's face, spectacles, hat, house, and car are square, as are his dog and plants. The guys perceive things differently, too. When a bird flutters by Mr. Round's window, he observes that the animal is close by, but Mr. Square retorts, "NO! The bird is far away." And as the two neighbors gaze at an array of animals, Mr. Round concludes that the dog is last in line. From Mr. Square's perspective, however, "The dog is first in line." Both are perfectly correct in their respective judgments. Young children will have a wonderful time meeting these jovial neighbors and exploring basic math concepts (shapes, quantities, spatial relationships, distances, perception, and relativity) as well as colors. But there's another message here, and we're not just talking math. At the end of the day, seeing things differently--and being OK with that--is what life's all about and what unites neighbors. Witness these fellows' final convivial picnic. This winning charmer, originally published in Belgium and the Netherlands and translated from Dutch, includes lively, colorful illustrations incorporating fonts that reflect the protagonists' shapes; the book uses rounded type for Mr. Round's dialogue and a sharper, squared type for Mr. Square's. Don't be a square: Everyone gather round for this adorable concept book.(Picture book. 3-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
