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 Muon Thi Van 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.

""The shape of the earth is a sphere." So begins The Shape of You, as a mother tells her toddler daughter about the shapes that make up their lives--and the reader is invited into their cosy world. There's the triangle hill their house is on, the square of their kitchen table, the cubes of ice in their drinks... There's also the shape of light (all the colours of the sunset) and the shape of the wind (a scarf flapping). As the shapes transmute from the literal into the figurative, our view on the little family expands, and we share special times between them: the arrival of a pet puppy; stargazing on a summer's night; and cuddling in bed while reading a story. When the girl's prized necklace breaks, puppy and mom are there for a hug, revealing how "the shape of warmth is a space waiting to be filled." As the text tells us that "some shapes change," we watch the child grow older--she's school-aged now, walking toward the house on the triangle-hill, where her mother stands. The story closes on the poignant image of the mother and daughter holding hands, their now-full-grown dog at their side: "The shape of my fingers will always fit yours. And the shape of my heart will always be you." With its meditative, heartwarming text and vibrant multi-textured illustrations, The Shape of You has the essence of a classic, one that will leave its own shape on the lives of its readers."--