Squarehead [Hardcover]

Harriet Ziefert (Author), Todd McKie (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 23, 2001 | Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

Young George has a square head. He is a squarehead, and, being so, prefers square to any other shape. He particularly can’t seem to get his mind around the idea of shapes without right angles — circles, ovals, and spheres. George finds wheels annoying, and baseballs dangerous, and eggs make him sick. In George’s world everything is square — even the earth. One night George has a dream. He floats off into outer space and encounters all sorts of nonsquare objects, like planets, the sun, and even the earth itself. And he learns that, after all, the world is round.
Children will delight in the bright, flat shapes that illustrate every page and George’s silly view of the world with square birds, square dogs, square cats — square everything. And if they aren’t careful, they might just learn a thing or two about shapes and the value of differences.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

George has a face like a cardboard box. He prefers rectangular buildings and angular animals. Although his oblong, staring eyes and carrot-stub nose never alter their symmetrical expression, his stern line of a mouth bends downward when a circle comes in sight. "In his square house in his square room, George was stuck in his own square head." This Cartesian attitude changes after George dreams of "a ringed planet... a satellite sphere... and the earth big and round." George hovers in a field of opaque blue, smiling down at an aquamarine curve. In the next spread, he leans out a blocky window toward a row of flowers and an orange sun. " `Round is awesome,' he said." This revelation comes abruptly. George sees value in difference, and that's that. The paintings reflect the hero's obstinacy in their sturdy arrangements of flat shapes and opaque color, and the writing does not examine what happens next or how circles feel. Yet Ziefert and McKie (First He Made the Sun) adequately summarize and satirize prejudice through their geometric example. In showing how George can be both a "squarehead" and a well-rounded fellow, this volume opens the floor to questions about difference. Ages 4-8.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2-A simple parable about prejudice and acceptance. George has a squarehead, lives in a square house, has a square cat and dog, and mistrusts anything that is not square. "Snowballs gave him shivers-Wheels were annoying." One night his dreams take him from his square bedroom to space where he sees the beauty of "a curved moon-and the earth big and round." McKie's striking and primitive illustrations nicely highlight Ziefert's minimalist text. From the endpapers of multicolored squares on a green background to the smiling blockheaded George juggling circles, this delightful read-aloud will teach young listeners about the value of appreciating differences.-Kathy M. Newby, Kokomo-Howard County Public Library, Russiaville, IN

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (April 23, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618083782
• ISBN-13: 978-0618083787
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,105,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Harriet Ziefert was born in New Jersey. She grew up in North Bergen, New Jersey, where she attended the local schools. She graduated from Smith College, then received a Masters degree in Education from New York University. "About twelve years ago," says Ziefert in a 1995 interview, "I tried to get a job as an editor, but no one would hire me as a trade editor. So I decided to write my own books." Since then, she has written several hundred books, mostly picture books and easy-to-read books. "I write books very quickly," she says, "in about twelve hours. I rewrite them three times over three days, and then they're done." She writes about twenty books a year. Ziefert's picture book A New Coat for Anna is about a girl in a bombed-out European city during the months just after World War II. Anna has outgrown her old coat, and her mother trades her few surviving treasures--a watch, a lamp, a necklace, and a porcelain teapot--in order to obtain wool and have it spun, woven, and finally sewn into a fine red coat for Anna. A Horn Book Magazine reviewer stated, "the simple text, based on a true story, carries the narrative along effectively." The book, which was illustrated by Anita Lobel, was chosen as one of ten books to be read aloud by former First Lady Barbara Bush as part of a program promoting reading. Ziefert was invited to the White House for the occasion. The reason Ziefert began writing easy-to-read books was that she felt "they were getting too hard for kids to read in the first grade." She says that she wrote easy-to-read books with seventy-five or fewer words, even ones with fifty or fewer words, "to see how much of a story" she could produce with that limit. She enjoyed the challenge, and cites her book Sleepy Dog as an example. "Sleepy Dog is the most successful book I've ever done, in terms of number of books sold." She's also been working on a developmental program with publisher Dorling Kindersley, made up of books for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. Her book Pete's Chicken, which was illustrated by Laura Rader, was reviewed in the New York Times Book Review as "a simple, sweet 'Song of Myself' for children . . . [which] applauds the specialness of every child as it reminds parents of the healing power of just being there for children." Among her other books is a series of easy-to-read books, such as Trip Day and Worm Day, about an inventive science teacher and his rambunctious class of students. Ziefert's book Let's Get a Pet was named an Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children by a joint committee of the National Science Teachers Association and the Children's Book Council. . Ms. Ziefert lives in Maplewood, New Jersey and Lincoln, Massachusetts. She has two adult sons.