What Am I?: Looking Through Shapes at Apples and Grapes - Hardcover

Charles, N. N.; Dillon, Leo; Dillon, Diane

3.8

41 ratings by Goodreads

9780590478915: What Am I?: Looking Through Shapes at Apples and Grapes

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0590478915 ISBN 13: 9780590478915

Publisher: Scholastic, 1994

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A concept book for young readers presents an interactive introduction to colors and shapes with boldly colored die-cuts of shapes through which familiar fruits can be seen, and includes rhyming clues that help identify the fruits.

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From Booklist:

Ages 2-5. This rhyming picture book invites children to guess what is described in a riddling rhyme and shown through a geometrically shaped hole in the right-hand page. On the left side of the spread a series of concentric squares appears, for instance, a small dark red one in the center bordered by ever larger and lighter ones to the edge of the page. The facing page, white with a cut out square window showing only a bit of textured red hidden on the next page, has the words "I'm red, I'm round, I fall to the ground. What am I?" Turn the page to see a large, horizontal spread of apple boughs heavy with fruit and one big, beautiful red apple. The riddle's answer might be guessed from the verbal or visual clue, but it has nothing to do with the squares that figure so prominently in the design. This multiple-concept book would be stronger if it did not try to do so much, from the guessing game to the colors lesson to the fruits lesson to the shapes lesson to the final lesson "In places here, and foreign lands, / the rainbow can be seen in hands / that make the world a better place /--a rainbow of the human race." Still, the paintings of shapes and fruits are huge, handsome, and appealing in their simplicity. Nursery-school teachers looking for concept books will find a number of uses for this one. Carolyn Phelan

From Publishers Weekly:

Colors, shapes and types of fruit share the agenda of this visually arresting volume, a riddle book with a social conscience. Facing a page displaying shades of a particular hue is a puzzle, e.g., "I'm red, I'm round,/ I fall to the ground. What am I?" Above the verse, a die-cut square (it is labeled) previews a mysterious red field that, with the turn of the page, is revealed as part of an an apple. The geometric die-cuts vary with each fruit, as do the colors. An ingenious, surprising detour ventures into deeper waters: "In nature, there will always be/ a rainbow in the things you see./ In places here, and foreign lands,/ the rainbow can be seen in hands/ that make the world a better place-/ a rainbow of the human race." Pseudonymous author Charles's rhymes flow with easy grace, and the Dillons (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) illustrate with large-screen, Technicolor hyperrealism, gorgeous in its own right and supportive of the full curriculum at hand. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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