Circle Dogs by Kevin Henkes

I was a big fan of Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse back when I was student teaching (my kiddos signed a copy of it for me as a going away gift), so I was excited to see a different style of book from Kevin Henkes. I think he is a great author who usually creates characters that give us insights into our own behaviors while also being entertaining.

This story used creative text placement to show movement and action. The format is different for almost every page. The illustrations in this story are very geometrically aware (I'm not sure that is a word). What I mean is that there are lots of purposeful circles, triangles, squares, and half circles used in the illustrations. Since the main characters are circle dogs, they inhabit a home that caters to all sorts of shapes from the recctangular doors, circular baby mouth as it cries, and square pieces of toast. The end papers also keep with the shape theme as the information is written in a circular format.

I think this would be a fun book for kids to read when they are learning about their shapes because there are lots of fun examples scattered throughout. The colors are bright and fun to find. The story is very simple and unfortunately not too exciting. There is a good smattering of rhythmic writing and word repetition that could make it fun to read aloud. I think it is really the illustrations, made from Gouache paints, that make the book special.