Go, Shapes, Go!

by Denise Fleming

Join a group of fun-loving shapes as they collaborate and create in this picture book from a Caldecott Honoree.Come along on a creative adventure with a gang of saucy shapes—and a mischievous mouse who wants to play too. Meet circles, rectangles, ovals, arcs, and a triangle and a square as well. Wait till you see what this crowd can make when they’re all working together!

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

40 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Denise Fleming has written and illustrated many children’s picture books, including In the Tall, Tall Grass, Shout! Shout It Out!, and Sleepy, Oh So Sleepy. She won a Caldecott Honor for In the Small, Small Pond. Denise creates her colorful illustrations by pouring colored paper pulp through hand-cut stencils. She lives in Toledo, Ohio.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/denise...
http://www.simonandschuster.com/autho...

Reviews

[Jason Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/12/17

I've been sharing a house with my sister and her five kids for the past month and a half, and they show no sign of departing in the near future in spite of sis's efforts to find other digs. Personally, I'm ready to ride the handsome to the clearing at the end of the path and have the bell to toll for me, but the young 'uns are weathering the circumstances quite well. One good thing about this infestation of twerps on my turf is that I get to check out some library books I would otherwise miss.

This sequel to Go, Dog. Go! doesn't measure up to the original, but hardly anything ever does. Is Doctor Sleep on par with The Shining? Not a chance. Go Set a Watchman with To Kill a Mockingbird? No, though I did thoroughly enjoy Watchman. You may think Go, Shapes, Go! isn't a sequel to Go, Dog. Go!, but the monkey has a hat, and I did not like his hat, so there. I don't care that it was written by a different author, that there are no dogs, that there are no cars, that there are no dogs driving cars, that there is no tree party. The inclusion of a hat makes it a sequel, I say, and there will be no further discussion of the matter.

A bunch of shapes in weird colors are hanging out on the left page. One or two flies to the right every time you turn the page, and eventually you get a monkey. A mouse conducts this operation but accidentally turns it into a cat a little later. Basically this thing is a transforming gestalt, but Devastator does it better.

All kidding aside, this is a decent enough book to help kids learn some shapes. There's a cute story attached with some rhymes thrown in, but it's hardly worth the suggested retail price of $17.99! Read it at the library.

[Tracy Clausen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would make a fun flannel story.

[JPL Children’s Department · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book if you want to learn shapes and have fun doing it. -XP

[Elizabeth Moreau Nicolai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book for shapes storytime. A bit abstract for 2 year olds. 3 year olds kinda got it. 4's loved it. Easily inspired some process focused art projects.

[Sarah O'Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept book, “Go, Shapes, Go!” by Denise Fleming is about shapes coming together to make a figure. At first, all different shapes start on the left-hand side of the page and one shape moves over to the right. As the book continues more and more shapes end up on the right side of the book. Once all shapes make their way to the right, the reader can see that the figure is now a monkey! At the end of the book, the monkey is knocked down and all the shapes fall to the floor and come back together as a cat, but the narrator says that they like monkeys so the shapes come back to form one. Each shape on the left-hand side of the book is labeled so the reader knows which shape is which. This is a great feature because it teaches new shapes. The illustrations are very colorful, allowing for a young reader to see where everything is going on the figure. This book would be great for kindergarten or 1st graders because it teaches shapes and gives them an opportunity to guess what the figure is. Having students draw a figure out of shapes and color each one differently would be a great activity relating to the book.

[Makenzie F · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a very simple and easy to read story about the different types of shapes. The story goes through the types of shapes and shows the shapes slowly coming together to create a figure. At the beginning and middle of the story the reader does not know what the mouse is creating with the different types of shapes. The shapes takes on some different types of forms; like a monkey and a cat. The illustrations for this story are made with muted colors and patterns. For me all the different types of patterns and colors make it hard to focus on what is being talked about, especially since the story brings in a new shape every page. This leaves the reader trying to figure out what is the shape the author is talking about.
If I did use this book I would use it with first or second grades. At this time in students time in school they have at least experienced shapes in one form or another. I would use this book to goes over what shapes there are and have the students identify the shapes.

[Erin Sturtz · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a creative and humorous picture book! Go, Shapes, Go by Denise Fleming, tells the story of a mouse who uses several shapes to make a monkey. The story introduces squares, ovals, circles, arcs, rectangles, and triangles in all different sizes. Towards the end of the story, all of the shapes get knocked down. When the shapes attempt to fix themselves back into position, they form a cat. However, the mouse doesn’t like cats, so he fixes the shapes and a monkey is created once again. The author uses active verbs like “bounce,” “roll,” “slither” and “twirl” on each page. The illustrations are bright, detailed, lively, and rich. Each page has a solid color for the background, and the monkey is made up of a variety of different colors and textures. I think this book would be great for kindergarteners and first graders. It would perfectly accompany a lesson on shapes, or even verbs. Students could try to draw their own monkey using different shapes on a piece of paper.

[Caitlin McGrath · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Go, Shapes, Go!" by Denise Fleming is a book about different types of shapes. Each shape is described by an action that the shape could do, and the shapes end up making a monkey. When the monkey is complete, you can still see all of the shapes that were used to create it. The mouse crashes into the monkey, making it fall apart. A new monkey is quickly made out of shapes again. There are rhyming words used throughout the story. The illustrations are simple and colorful, which is perfect for younger children who are just learning shapes. This book would be good for students from preschool through second grade. I would use this book with younger children to teach them shapes, or use it in a lesson to teach students rhyming words. The book is simple enough for young children to read on their own, but it could also be used to read aloud to students and ask them questions about the rhymes and the shapes.

[Asho · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy Denise Fleming's work, and this was no exception. The basic gist is that a bunch of shapes are put together by a mouse to form a monkey and then (accidentally) a cat. My 3-year-old definitely understood the concept, although a few of the shapes were new to her and thus a little confusing ("What's an arc? I don't see an arc!" she told me; it was doubly confusing because she'd just finished hearing about Noah's ark at church earlier this week and I think the homonym was tripping her up.) She also insisted that the monkey was a "people", even after I pointed out the tail. She was still pretty pleased with the way the shapes came together into a picture, though, even if she did think it was a person.

[Viviane Elbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is good for older preschoolers who are learning about shapes, though elementary students may also enjoy how the shapes come together to make animals.

This book has some action so it isn’t purely a concept book - and that makes it more enjoyable for story time.

I think it would work nicely paired with an art project involving cut-out shapes and glue sticks.

Kids enjoyed it and we read it twice in a row, just to see how all the shapes were assembled.

[Logan Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not like this book as much for its plot but rather its illustrations. This book would be a great book to use when teaching a lesson on the art style of collage. I could read it and demonstrate how the illustrator used multiple types of paper to create a picture. Then I could have students try and make their own collage pictures.

[Timothy Farring · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that this would be a good book to go over before giving out a college project. I would use this and then books like Brown bear Brown Bear, what do you see? I think that this is a silly book with equally silly illustrations and because of that will be loved by children around the world. Make reading fun again.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book to share with your kiddo one-on-one. This goes beyond basic shapes and also brings in concepts like sizes, shapes like arcs, and how shapes can fit together in different ways. Denise Fleming's art is, as always, wonderful.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a fun book to discuss shapes and to use them to create different "pictures". I can't wait to cut out shapes from paper and "read" this story to my 2 little ones. And then we're going to need our tangrams...

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely for a younger crowd, though my 5th grader and I did find it amusing. I think my kids would have enjoyed it and wanted to play with the idea of mixing up shapes to make different animals when they were a little younger. It lends itself to expansion and hands on activities.

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, fun, fun with shapes-shapes-shapes.

In this fantastic adventure, there's a show. At first it may seem as though the shapes are the main characters, but keep your eyes on the little mouse.

FIVE STARS to that wildly creative author and illustrator, Denise Fleming.

[Wanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could see this book used in pre-k to talk about shapes and action words. Could do craft at the end and make monkey out of shapes.

[Sarah Threlkeld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt really scattered in the beginning because of the illustrations, but about halfway through the main picture started coming together and the story didn't feel so busy.

[Guin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for identifying shapes while also showing how shapes are used to make and build things.

[Karla · Rating 5 out of 5]

could not love this more

wonderful illustrations

promotes early math concepts
engaging text

buy it
gift it
read it often

[Aarvik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay read

[Rebecca Caufman]

A mouse makes a monkey out of shapes but then it is destroyed...so the shapes reassemble into a CAT!

[Brendon Hamacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and fun but so-so.

[Catarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is how you make a book about shapes for children and then create a story with them while showing each shape. I loved this, though it's more for older children than toddlers or younger.

[Miss Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

shapes make movements like flipping and swirling until they make a monkey and then a cat. Toddler and up. The kids had a great time moving like the shapes.

[Vayda Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was "okay", but nothing amazing, and almost a little frustrating. It took a long time to get through and I didn't care for the color scheme. It almost hurt the eyes to try to focus on it. Just not very aesthetically appealing.

[Richie Partington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richie’s Picks: GO, SHAPES, GO! by Denise Fleming, Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane, October 2014, 40p., ISBN: 978-1-4424-8240-1

“Bend me, shape me, anyway you want to”
-- Scott English and Barry Weiss (1966)

“SHAPES are in place and ready to go!
Slide, SQUARE, and start the show!
Bounce, OVAL, up and down.
Roll, CIRCLE, round and round.”

The seasons may go round and round, but you can’t take the old preschool teacher out of me. One read through GO, SHAPES, GO!, and I can imagine being back in a center setting up the craft project to accompany a circle time read-aloud.

To help teach about shapes, I’d often use an Ellison shape-cutting press to produce mass quantities of circles, squares, rectangles, triangles and other shapes. Preschoolers would color and glue those shapes to create pictures on large sheets of paper. GO, SHAPES, GO! will inspire such projects.

A stylish little mouse on wheels directs a colorful collection of shapes that slide and bounce and roll around until they combine to make a monkey friend. But, alas, the mouse accidentally collides with the monkey, sending the shapes into a new less-friendly configuration (at least less friendly to mice).

There are all sorts of ways to introduce preschoolers to shapes. GO, SHAPES, GO! is one of the liveliest and funnest I’ve seen.

Richie Partington, MLIS
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[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute picture book idea and likely best for toddlers who understand shapes, which are labeled in the book to make a couple of animals. It seems that it would be nice for fostering some creative thinking for crafts and what can be made with different shapes by a child.

[Cori Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mouse is getting a friend. There are shapes of many sizes and colors and these shapes are go, go, going to make a friend for Mouse. The shapes slide, bounce, and roll in order to give Mouse a monkey friend. When Mouse gets a little too excited and knocks monkey back into the original shapes, the shapes have a surprise for Mouse.

Activity – Review the shapes that are used to make both the monkey and the cat in Go, Shapes, Go! Ask students to identify items throughout the classroom that have the same shapes as what is seen in the story. Ask students to identify items throughout the classroom that have different shapes than what is seen in the story. Either provide shapes to each student that are identical in shape and number as what is seen in the story or provide patterns for the students to use to cut out shapes identical in shape and number as what is seen in the story (to make this even more fun, one could use wallpaper scraps to provide lots of different colors and patterns). Allow students time to experiment in creating different animals with their shapes. After determining “favorite” animal from shapes, students will glue shapes together to create animal. Pose the questions, “Would your animal be a friend to Mouse?” and “Why or why not?”

Fleming, D. (2014). Go, shapes, go! New York, NY: Beach Lane Books.

[Cydney Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

While reading this book, students will be introduced to shapes. These shapes are lively bouncing around the book making something amazing. Along the ways we learn sounds as the picture is building. To find out what happened to the shapes and what they all build together read this book!

Picture Book
Audience Level: K-1
Grade Level: K

Activity: Start out by reviewing the shapes individually with the students. Ask students did they notice any rhyming words (phrase) or what part they liked best about the book. What is the relationship between the square and the rectangle as shapes? For a group activity have the students chose two shapes and identify the similarities and differences. This could be a great transition lesson connecting bother reading and math.

Citation: Fleming, D. (n.d.). Go, shapes, go! Beach Lane Books.