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Summary
Summary
Hunt for shapes of all kinds on this journey through a bustling city, illustrated by four-time Caldecott Honoree Bryan Collier!
From shimmering skyscrapers to fluttering kites to twinkling stars high in the sky, everyday scenes become extraordinary as a young girl walks through her neighborhood noticing exciting new shapes at every turn. Far more than a simple concept book, City Shapes is an explosion of life. Diana Murray's richly crafted yet playful verse encourages readers to discover shapes in the most surprising places, and Bryan Collier's dynamic collages add even more layers to each scene in this ode to city living.
Reviews (2)
Horn Book Review
Part concept book, part celebration of urban life, this engaging volume encourages children to slow down and identify the various shapes of a city over the course of a day, beginning at sunrise and ending with a calm and glowing evening sky. A young African American girl (Colliers daughter, as we learn in the artists note) is the guide, and her obvious joy in her city is contagious. Murrays rhyming couplets scan well, making the rhythm easy to follow (and/or memorize, which is always welcome for the youngest listeners or readers). In Colliers vibrant watercolor and collage illustrations, squares are truck windows and a UPS deliverers packages; rectangles are park benches and skyscrapers; circles are manhole covers and a taxis wheels; etc. Though the shapes should be familiar to most kids, city-dwellers or not, the choices of the images are decidedly urban, celebrating the diverse cultures in this girls city as she ventures to the park, the public market, the subway, busy intersections, brownstone neighborhoods, and a quiet rooftop where she spies the nest of a pigeon that makes cameo appearances throughout the story. Fans of Colliers work will notice echoes from his book Uptown, which would make a fine companion volume. Teachers looking for a new book to add to their math unit on shapes need look no further. robin smith (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Rhyming text and brilliant multimedia collage combine to follow a girl's journey through her beloved city.Part concept book, part love letter to urban beauty, Murray and Collier's collaboration highlights an African-American girl's observations about the many shapes she sees in and around her city. In his illustrator's note, Collier tells readers that he modeled the little girl on his own daughter, and Murray's author's note shares that she was inspired to write her rhyming verse by her many walks around New York City. The text's pattern first highlights many different items that share a given shape and then names that shape before moving on to another list. A postal truck, a pretzel cart, "and stacks of brown packages hauled up the stairs" are all squares, for instance. Collier fills every page, allowing art to take up entire double-page spreads, and his distinctive collage technique is particularly well-suited to highlighting the shapes named by the text. He also pushes well beyond merely visually reiterating the items the text lists, and the result is a seamless interdependence of art and text that will allow readers to find the named items while also providing ample visual interest to reward poring over the illustrations.A visual feast of cityscape shapes. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.