Circle Rolls

by Barbara Kanninen, Serge Bloch (illustrator)

When Circle rolls into one of Triangle's points and pops, chaos momentarily ensues until Octagon's "Stop!" brings everyone to their senses.

Genres: Picture Books, Storytime, Childrens, Fiction, Mathematics

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2016

Reviews

[Kylee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute and simple story with rhymes illustrating shapes and their characteristics.

[CharityJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This sweet story (read aloud with a geometry focus!) works in a lot of ways- shapes, color, cause/effect, kindness, rhyme. Great readaloud for the preK-2 set!

[Launna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun story in rhyme about shapes.

[McKenzie Richardson · Rating 2 out of 5]

For more reviews, check out my blog: Craft-Cycle

Well that was kind of terrifying. What starts out as a clever rhyming book about shapes takes a pretty dark turn. It all works itself out in the end, but the details were a bit creepy.

In the book, circle rolls until it lands on the top of a very sharp triangle and pops. Like it literally explodes and its pieces fall everywhere. WHAT? It was pretty horrifying. And the other characters are completely unfazed. The tiny people who adorn each page just get out their umbrellas and watch bits of circle fall from the sky. Not only that, the pieces land around square who then inhales some of the dust of its exploded friend and sneezes. This causes all sorts of ruckus and what-have-you, but the major point is that a character blows up and is inhaled by another character. This is weird and gross and horrifying. Who thought that was a good idea in a children's book? End rant.

The pictures are simple, but entertaining (besides that terrifying part mentioned in the spoiler). I can seen this being used in schools to teach rhyming, shapes, actions, cause and effect, etc.

At the end, this book was just okay for me because it got a little too dark and I think there are better educational books for kids that don't include horrifying accidents.

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this once, and literally thought "what is going on here?" and had to read the book again.
First, what you think is the title page, where the author and illustrator and the title of the book are listed, is actually the first page of the book. Apparently, this is a story about chain reaction, and what happens when Circle rolls. Spoiler- Circle should just stay put because the rest of the shapes can't keep their stuff together, except square who apparently can't get up.
Second, Circle gets popped. You have the first character gets popped, and pieces of them fall down on other characters and make them sneeze. Um, gross?
Third, the line of events seems forced. There is an attempt at a rhyme on each page, but it doesn't add anything and limited the word choice to those that rhyme may have actually hurt the book overall.
There are also all these little stick humans running around the pages doing stuff, but the shapes don't seem to see them. It's a little weird, though if you pay attention they can provide visual clues as to what is happening, or what will happen on the next page. The text is all over the place, the illustrations are large and fill the space, and these little line drawings just add more chaos to an already busy page.

[Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Circle Rolls by Barbara Kanninen, illustrated by Serge Bloch. PICTURE BOOK. Phaidon Press Limited, 2018. $17. 9780714876306

BUYING ADVISORY: Pre-K, EL (K-3)- OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

All the shapes get mixed up and tumbled after circle goes rolling along and lands on top of triangle… pop! Each shape does it’s own special thing until they are so intermixed that they have to be stopped. They right themselves until circle goes rolling along once more.

It is really cute how each shape does its own thing that is, mostly, unique to what that shape would do. But beyond that, there isn’t much to the story. I could see younger readers getting a little bored, but it would be a really good introduction to some of the basic shapes. Teachers could definitely expand on the content on their own.

Shay, High School Librarian, MLS
https://kissthebookjr.blogspot.com/20...

[MeganRuth - Alohamora Open a Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many shapes, and fun things the shapes do as they interact with eachother. The shapes are diverse, and fun and want to move. This book could be interactive if you have the kids move like the shapes when applicable/possible. It has good rhythm with rhyming words (not obvious though) which would make it work for phonological awareness.

Focus: Phonological Awareness. Classification.

Storytimes: 2s and 3s- maybe. Family Storytime for sure. Teachers could do it with math talking about the different shapes.

Could pair it with Mac Barnett's shape books.

[Claire Waldron-Gross · Rating 4 out of 5]

The rhymes were a little awkward, but the worked well in storytime because many of the pages lent themselves to related motions, so it was easy to turn this into an interactive experience. There were lots of simple details that kids could point out, and plenty of opportunities for song and concept tie-ins. Great for a shape-themed storytime.

[emyrose8 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book about shapes. The circle pops on the triangle’s point and his little drops rain on the other shapes... which at first was funny, but then again kind of disturbing since they are a bit humanoid. The other shapes put him back together in the end.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

A picture book of many different shapes, and how they fit into their environment, and what happens when circle rolls, and causes a chain reaction.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, simple, my first graders love it

[Miss Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

A circle pops and all the other shapes help pick up the pieces and put circle back together. Elementary and up

[Joy Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

good for teaching shapes

[Lucca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this one about shapes! What shapes can do :)

[Sarah Threlkeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever concept

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cleverly drawn and would make a great way to introduce or review shapes and their characteristics to one and all.

[SBC · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny little story with pencil drawings and shapes.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

With rhyming text (that actually works) shapes in motion get into a jumble. A delightful lap book. Phaidon Press always brings the most visually dramatic picture books and this one hits the mark!

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good rhythm here and kind of a fun story.

Triangle is isosceles but not equilateral. Diamond is a very narrow rhombus. Rectangle is not a square.