The Shape of You

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.

ISBN-13: 9781525305450

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Kids Can Press

Publication Date: 05-02-2023

Pages: 32

Product Dimensions: 10.16h x 8.11w x 0.55d

Age Range: 4 - 8 Years

Muon Thi Van loves to read books of all shapes and sizes. She first began reading yellow-spined hardbacks about a certain girl detective before graduating to longer novels and then picture books (it's true, she doesn't remember reading picture books as a young child). So few books reflected her formative experiences, though, that she desired to bring new and different stories into the world. Muon has written many picture books for children, including Wishes, If You Were Night and One Is a Lot, and her books have received many distinctions and awards. She lives in Northern California with her family.
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.