Billions of Bricks

Starred review from September 12, 2016
Cyrus elevates the humble brick in more ways than one in an effervescent picture book set at a busy construction site, where hard hat–wearing men, women, and children build a palatial structure. First, though, the bricks need to be made: “Dig the clay./ Squish it thick./ Take a mold and make a brick./ Dump it out./ Let it dry./ Stoke the oven way up high,” writes Cyrus. There’s an impressive dimensionality to the structures on display and beauty in the subtle variations in the bricks’ rosy hues. Readers aren’t explicitly asked to do any counting, but it’s almost impossible to resist diving into the architecturally theatrical images to tally the arches, columns, and porticos that take shape. Cyrus’s rollicking rhymes (“Two, four, six./ A million, billion bricks./ Columns, walls, shopping malls,/ halls of politics”) and elegant artwork should delight playroom block stackers and someday builders and architects alike. Ages 4–7.

This describes itself as "a counting book about building," but it is so much more. Vying for readers' attention are the snappy rhymes that both count and instruct and the artwork, the details so vivid and the bricks so real that some of the stacks might just fall with the touch of a counting finger. With each turn of the page, what appear to be the members of a community--young and old, male and female, black and white and brown--add more bricks to create a masterpiece. Starting with "two, four, six. / Look at all the bricks! / Red and rough, hard and tough. / Two, four, six," the piles of bricks get larger and larger as readers are treated to a view of how bricks are made. Some mix the mortar, some lay the bricks, and one white boy, having been given one brick by what could be his grandmother, can be seen on every page, carrying or offering his brick to workers. Past the halfway mark, Cyrus continues to use numbers in his rhymes, but readers will be unable to match them with bricks to count. No matter. This is an amazing feat of architecture and artistry that kids will pore over long after the last brick has been laid. After sharing this, readers will have a new appreciation for bricks and will want to count all the ways they're used in their own communities. (Counting/picture book. 4-7) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2016

PreS-Gr 2-Builders. Counters. Gather round to share this book where bricks abound. As workers make bricks, mix mortar, and build increasingly complex structures, Cyrus's pulsing rhythm and infectious rhyme drive their efforts forward. Six bricks on the first pages grow to piles of tens, patterns of four, then hundreds forming arches and stairs. Against the earth-tone palette of the bricks themselves, splotches of color from hard hats and overalls identify the laborers. Among the workers who reappear in many scenes are the original three-a boy, a man, and a woman-who can be spotted on each spread. Variations in type size automatically generate emphasis in read-aloud renditions, which seem essential. Individual readers can peruse the complex illustrations of building sites for increased enjoyment. The impeccable design is apparent even on the title pages, where bricks form words and the youngest worker walks past a window. VERDICT This impressive melding of illustrations and text that celebrates hard work and building deserves a place in general collections and on read-aloud shelves.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University Library, Mankato

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