Tangled

April 1, 2019
Two- and three-dimensional shapes must problem-solve when several get stuck while at the playground. "One day a little circle, just as happy as could be / got caught inside the jungle gym, and couldn't wiggle free." Several friends try to help her, either ineffectually or, worse, getting stuck themselves. As crowds gather, a line arrives, and she devises the perfect plan. With the help of a prism and a sphere, she sets up a lever and pops the shapes free. Miranda's rhyming verses sometimes stumble. Comstock's shape characters, with noodlelike arms and legs, mostly sport similar expressions of dismay or happiness. His depictions of the jungle gym fail to make it clear how the shapes are trapped; they look as though they could just slip out. Only two shapes are specifically gendered female in the text. Both are pink (at least one other pink shape is explicitly male); one has a bow atop her head, the other, who wears glasses, has eyelashes. The mix of 2- and 3-D shapes makes the audience tough to pin down. Some shapes will be mystifying to children still sorting them out: The word "ellipse" is used instead of "oval," and in a scene where crowds gather, the text refers to "points" joining the throng; readers may not know what they are till they reach the ending shape gallery, which shows points as a group of dots. There are so many shape-recognition books that are so much better; this one should remain tangled. (Picture book. 3-8)

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June 1, 2019

PreS-Gr 2-One day a perfectly innocent and adorable circle is playing on the jungle gym when she gets stuck inside it. Unable to extricate herself, she asks her friend Triangle to set her free her but he also ends up trapped. The same cruel fate befalls an ellipse and a group of pentagons who all bravely try to untangle the others but end up imprisoned. Help appears in the form of a straight and narrow line, who takes immediate command of the situation. With a clever plan utilizing some bystander shapes, they knock the jungle gym down freeing those inside. Line then explains to the jungle gym that she should make her spaces wider and soon all the shapes are able to play without peril. The rhyming text begs to be read aloud and will be an entertaining introduction to various shapes. Comstock's playful and expressive digital illustrations are done in warm tones and mimic chalkboard drawings. There is a gallery of shapes at the end that kids will surely love studying. VERDICT This delightful geometric tale is a must have for most libraries.-Amy Nolan, St. Joseph Public Library, MI

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2019
There is trouble at the playground when a pink circle gets stuck inside a jungle gym. In Comstock’s retro-feeling illustrations, shape after colorful shape tries to help, each getting caught, until the playground structure is a chaotic tangle of geometric characters (“What a horror! What a mess! The shapes could not untwine,” Miranda writes). Just then, a “straight and narrow line,” comes bounding onto the scene. After eyeing the angles, she conjures up a plan and deputizes a prism and a sphere, who together form themselves into a lever and free their shape friends from the jam. Though how the lever’s force does what the stuck shapes cannot is not particularly clear, the characters’ willingness to help and their
collaborative problem-solving make for an animated tale of community. Postscript material includes a chart of geometric shapes found in the book. Ages 4–8.