June 28, 2018

BALANCE THE BIRDS

This is a week for much-anticipated follow-ups! Susie Ghahremani's Balance the Birds is the loose companion book to last year's Stack the Cats, which was a huge favorite of mine (but not just because of the cats! Well a little bit because of the cats...)


In Balance the Birds readers covertly (and with copious laughter) learn about balance and size. When half of the birds are on the left side of the tree and the other half are on the right side, the tree is balanced. But take away half of the birds and the tree gets wobbly. Until another set of birds comes in, but now the other side is too heavy! So how can you make the tree stay balanced? Readers learn to find the perfect center in a fun and engaging way, and you have to love the little squirrel who appears on every page and just wants to hang out!


Like its predecessor Stack the Cats, there is a huge emphasis on the design of Balance the Birds, with the square trim size, a different casewrap/dust jacket combo, and the color choices throughout. Ghahremani sticks with mostly primary colors (reds, blues, and yellows), adding even further to the sensation that this is covert learning at its finest (it's too easy to use this book to talk about color theory), and I have to say that there is something really enticing about the endpapers, which kind of look like coloring sheets. The text is sparse, letting the illustrations do the talking, and that's pretty perfect since children are likely to be focused on the adorable birds and their comings and goings.


Balance the Birds publishes from Abrams October 2! And here's a peek underneath the dust jacket!



And just for funsies, here's a look at the casewrap from the previous book, Stack the Cats!




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2 comments:

  1. Ghahremani has created another colorful, simple concept book illustrating balance. A sophisticated mathematical concept that, broken into several examples, is made easily and enjoyably understandable.

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  2. I want this in a board book. When is that coming?

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