Text and illustrations present such puzzles as a hand that is also the head of a rabbit and dinosaur shadows that are also clowns with big feet. Features some die-cut pages.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
McGuire (What Goes Around Comes Around) shows a knack for illusion and a punning wit in this book of visual games. The artist builds his characters and landscapes from smooth, geometric forms that would look at home on a computer screen, and selects a kitschy yet crisp palette of minty blue, chartreuse, pine green and cool pink. He links his puzzles with a circus theme, including a startled-looking clown who clambers through almost every spread. Die-cut holes offer peeks into other scenes, and these windows deliberately mislead: with the turn of a page, animal heads seen through cut-outs become shadow figures formed by human hands. Elsewhere, an elephant-shaped silhouette is revealed on the next spread to be something else entirely: a fat snake lounging with the clown in an easy chair. And, when the book is turned upside-down, portraits on a gallery wall take on different facial expressions ("Which side is up?/ I don't have a clue!/ There's two sides to each story, and both of them true"). McGuire's rhymes, unobtrusive if at times ungrammatical, offer hints on viewing the illustrations. He playfully acknowledges the cut-outs, for example, with the couplet "So the story has holes. Well what can I say?/ It makes the book better to look through that way." Readers will need to stay on their toes to catch all the surprises in this inventive volume. All ages.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2. A book of visual puzzles and tricks containing die-cuts, optical illusions, shadow play, and "what's wrong with this picture" spreads. The minimal text playfully fools readers' visual perceptions. McGuire's art has a spare, highly stylized quality reminiscent of Lane Smith's Happy Hocky Family (Viking, 1993). Most of the cartoonlike illustrations are composed of flat, geometrical shapes. Some pictures are done in collage. Colors are bold and bright, but not vibrant and fail to provide an emotionally satisfying visual sensation. The main character, a clownlike figure in plaid pants, comes and goes inconsistently throughout the book, at one point climbing through a hole from a previous page on which he did not even appear. Unlike David Legge's Bamboozled (Scholastic, 1995), the puzzles lack any real unifying theme. For puzzle books that readers will request again and again, choose the Walter Wick and Jean Marzollo's "I Spy" series (Scholastic).?Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Greenwich, CT
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderfully imaginative and fun to read!,
By A Customer
This review is from: What's Wrong with This Book? (Hardcover)
This book is a lot of fun - each page has a suprise. You think you are looking at one thing, and then you turn the page and find out that it's something altogether different. The pictures are very good, and especially absorbing for little children. There's even a little bit about making hand-shadows. It's a great book!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fun to share with your kids,
This review is from: What's Wrong with This Book? (Hardcover)
This book is a lot of fun for everyone. It is silly and fun. My children will look at it at least 2 or 3 times a day and want it read all the time.
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