So Mary Circles, So Many Squares, by Tana Hoban

Hoban, Tana. So Many Circles, So Many Squares. Greenwillow Books, 1998.  40 pages. $15.00, ISBN 0-688-15165-5

AGE LEVEL
0 -12 months

GENRE
Nonfiction (Shapes)

REVIEW
Even the youngest children will enjoy this book of photographs showing examples of geometric shapes in everyday life.  This wordless book shows mainly urban, but also a few natural scenes.  There are photographs of circular-shaped objects such as bicycle tires, buttons, and streetlights, and square-shaped objects such as street signs, luggage, and boxes.  All of the images are large, bright, clear, and colorful -- and very natural, including mud stains on a car, crumbs on a table, etc.  Children will have fun finding as many of each shape as possible in these scenes which will be familiar in most of their daily lives.  A great book for infants simply to enjoy, and for older children to start laying the foundation for developing the reading readiness skill of letter knowledge through shape recognition.

LIBRARY PROGRAMMING IDEAS
Here are a couple songs to accompany this book during infant or toddler storytime:

          SUZY CIRCLE 

          I'm Suzy Circle.
          I'm happy as can be.
          I go round and round.
          Can you draw me?


          THE SQUARE SONG

          I am a square, a lovely square.
          I have four sides; they're all the same.
          I have four corners, four lovely corners.
          I am a square, that is my name!