30 March 2015 HAVE YOU SEEN MY MONSTER? by Steve Light, Candlewick, May 2015, 48p., ISBN: 978-0-7636-7513-4

“In Euclidean geometry, a kite is a quadrilateral whose four sides can be grouped into two pairs of equal-length sides that are adjacent to each other. In contrast, a parallelogram also has two pairs of equal-length sides, but they are opposite each other rather than adjacent.

-- from the Wikipedia article “Kite (geometry)”

“Save your neck or save your brother

Looks like it’s one or the other

Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in”

How many books have you read that introduce little kids to circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles? Some are entertaining and some are not so entertaining, but there sure are a lot of them.

Now how many books have you read that introduce little kids to heptagons, quatrefoils, curvilinear triangles, and nonagons?

Set as a romp through a county fair by a young girl and her loveable monster on the loose, HAVE YOU SEEN MY MONSTER? is a perfect book for kids who love to discover and catalogue the names of things, such as those pre-Ks and early elementary students who learn the names and habits of every dinosaur that ever existed.

HAVE YOU SEEN MY MONSTER? is illustrated in pen and ink. In each spread, the illustrations are black and white except for the highlighted shape. There’s a hide-and-seek aspect to the story, as the girl seeks the monster, and the monster blends in with the background.  In one spread it poses as a carousel horse. In another, it sits still among the stuffed animal prizes.

Containing valuable geometry lessons, and some great vocabulary words to remember for Scrabble or Words With Friends, HAVE YOU SEEN MY MONSTER? is a very fun trip to the county fair.

Richie Partington, MLIS

Richie's Pickshttp://richiespicks.pbworks.com

BudNotBuddy@aol.com

https://www.facebook.com/richie.partington

Moderatorhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/