Book Buds Kidlit Reviews

Not enough!

How Many: Spectacular Paper Sculptures
by Ron van der Meer

Robin Corey Books

If you could cross geometry-crazed Joost Elffers with 3-D illustrator Robert Sabuda, this is what you'd get: slender tendrils of paper that spiral almost to infinity in a book that's endlessly fun and mind-boggling. Plus, kids will be too busy to realize it's good for them.

Although van der Meer created only five spreads, each is designed to keep a kid counting stars or rectangles or zig-zagging lines or different combinations of shapes and colors. It's exhausting, really. But that's good, right?

I'm a little afraid to leave this lying around. A promotional brochure with the dazzling display to your right lasted exactly half a nanosecond after my two-year-old got to it. It took many tears and some scotch tape to calm everyone down, myself included.

But placing the book out of reach means it isn't handy for my son, who's endlessly fascinated by the delicate sculptures and the dozens of counting questions. Here's just a few:

How many stars have 4 points? ... How many star points touch the pages? How many stars are hollow?

I usually scoff at parents convinced that this workbook or that primer will get their tot into Harvard. With this one, I'm not so cynical ... but is age 5 a little early to start filling out the application?

Rating: *\*\*\*\

Please don't eat the pages

Fast Food

by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers

Dog Food

I've complained about this before:  I just cannot get my scallions, peppers and cukes to pose this nicely for the camera. I don't know how these guys do it.

I bruise a banana, it looks like a bruised banana, not a dog or a canoe. I cannot entice mushrooms to hold hands and smile. It would never occur to me that black-eyed peas make for some eerily expressive eyes, or how to manipulate broccoli into the pampered tufts of a poodle.

These guys do not need my help selling their books, which teach kids shapes, colors and counting using carved fruits and vegetables. Dog Food features dogs (wouldn't you know it) and lots of canine puns, while Fast Food depicts modes of transportation, such as an eggplant train or a squash school bus with smiley radish faces peering out.

I guess we'd better not tell the folks at People for the Ethical Rights of Vegetables. This could constitute veggie abuse.

I really have nothing else to add, except perhaps some balsamic dressing.

Rating: *\*\*\*\ 

Other books by these authors that we've reviewed:
Food for Thought

A fruity way to learn

Food for Thought

by Saxton Freyman and Joost Elffers

Someone forgot to tell this duo not to play with their food. Thank goodness, or kids wouldn’t have such startling sculptures of bok choy fish or cauliflower sheep to teach them basic concepts: colors, shapes, numbers, letters and opposites. Eye-catching colors and uncluttered layouts keep this fruity menagerie moving along.

The foods are real -- and after several readings, I'm still scrutinizing the pages to see just how the artists did it. Even knowing they used black-eyed peas for eyes doesn’t affect the magic: How did they find all those peppers with silly faces? How come my bruised bananas never look like giraffes?

I brought this book to my son’s pre-school and the teacher didn’t want to part with it: the kids wouldn’t let her put it down. You’ll never look at salad the same way again.

Rating: *\*\*\*\