The Shape of You (Hardcover)
A thoughtful and unique meditation on the shapes found in everyday life, sure to expand young children’s thinking.
In lyrical language, a mother tells her small daughter about the shapes that make up their lives. At first, the shapes are literal. The shape of their door is a rectangle, their table, a square. Water can be shaped like a cube or a cloud. And then she moves on to the figurative. The shape of learning is a question. The shape of warmth is a space waiting to be filled. Some shapes change, like a child growing up, while some remain the same, like the triangle of the mountain behind their house. The shape of her heart, she concludes, “will always be you.”
Bestselling and award-winning author Mượn Thị Văn has written an innovative, poetic and philosophical exploration of shapes and the many forms they can take, touching on objects, families and love. The meditative and heartwarming text is beautifully complemented by Miki Sato’s layered, multitextured and three-dimensional-looking illustrations created from different papers and fabrics. A soothing read-aloud, this picture book has the feel of a classic and promotes observation, curiosity, interpretation and discussion. It’s an excellent choice for exploring critical thinking, shapes and measurements with young children.
Miki Sato is a Japanese Canadian illustrator who uses a variety of different papers and fabrics to create layered, three-dimensional-looking illustrations. She enjoys experimenting with new textures and incorporates materials such as embroidery thread, glass beads, cotton balls, and sand into her illustrations. Miki lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Destined to become a classic.—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Librarians, teachers and parents will enjoy using If You Were Night to reinforce the use of colourful vocabulary, to talk about the life of the nighttime world, and just for its reassuring tone as a bedtime lilt.—CM Magazine (Praise for If You Were Night)
A special addition to primary library collections.—CM Magazine
... simple and deep ...—ABQLA (Praise for One is a Lot (Except When It's Not))
Simple grammar yields philosophical meanings Van's incantatory lines ... Sato's collages layer vibrant colors, textiles, and embroidery, successfully visualizing that which feels elusive.—Publishers Weekly, starred review