  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 10/01/2008 PreS-Gr 2-Seeger's ability to transform everyday words and objects into an amazing concept book continues with One Boy. Using the numbers 1 through 10, her signature die-cut pages, and a vocabulary that is designed to show words inside other words, the author has engineered a tribute to wordplay that is unmatched. On readers' first trip through the text, it will appear that the 10 objects are loosely linked only by their spelling patterns ("Two seals,/At the sea"; "Ten ants/In your pants"). As the story concludes, however, it becomes clear that all of the art was painted by the "one boy" who started it all. Youngsters will quickly return to the beginning to study the paintings more closely. While preschoolers will enjoy the book's design and take pleasure in guessing at what is next to appear, it is children who are beginning to develop their sight vocabulary who will most appreciate Seeger's efforts. This is one boy who won't be left alone for long.-Maura Bresnahan, High Plain Elementary School, Andover, MA Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. - Copyright 2008 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 10/15/2008 *Starred Review* Seeger’s First the Egg (2007) was named both a Caldecott Honor Book and Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor Book. Here, she brings her considerable ingenuity to another clever picture book that works on many levels. On its surface, it is a one-to-ten counting book, illustrated with bright, simple pictures in saturated colors and heavy black outlines. Precise die cuts in every other page add another level of sophistication. On a two-page spread, text on the left identifies what’s to be counted—“THREE APES,” for example— while a die cut in the right-hand page exposes a picture of the subject through the hole. Turn the page, and the die cut frames a piece of the text from the previous spread, incorporating it into a new phrase that spells out a new situation—“BIG ESCAPE”—that is illustrated on the opposite page. And if that weren’t enough, the final spread links the entire book together with a string of consecutive images that is delightfully surprising. More than just a picture book to be enjoyed by countless counting toddlers, this offers deft wordplay to engage beginning readers, and enough provocative substance to entertain older children as well. A delight for a wide audience. - Copyright 2008 Booklist. Bulletin for the Center... - 10/01/2008 This exercise in page-turn surprises opens with a grass-green background, the numeral 1, and the phrase “one boy,” while on the facing page, said boy sits beside a satchel of paint brushes and peeks out of a die-cut hole in the black background. Flip the leaf and the phrase “all alone” appears on the verso, with the letters o-n-e on the preceding spread now framed by the die cut, and the boy now shown on the recto in a room full of empty chairs. Seeger makes her way toward ten with similar transformations—“two seals” reappear in the following spread, lazing on a beach “at the sea,” as the s-e-a chain anchors the pair of scenes. After reaching ten ants in the pants, Seeger wraps it up with a composite of the scenes, now taped to a white wall; the one boy and his drippy paintbrushes exit, all done. This could be more cohesive, and the concept of one word’s nesting in another will be a stretch for some youngsters, but the game aspect has distinct appeal. The simplified designs, with figures heavily outlined in black and sporting bold matte colors, will be enjoyed by youngsters as young as the board-book crowd, but it’s solid enough for word-learning older kids, too. While smaller youngsters may catch onto the patterning as they flip the pages back and forth, this may find its most appreciative audience among emerging readers, who will enjoy scouring their own picture books for cleverly camouflaged words. EB - Copyright 2008 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
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