One bold, bright shape after another appears on a snow-white background, presenting creative possibilities galore, in this inventive art-lesson-in-a-book.
First a gray circle, then a gold quarter-pie shape, two smaller black circles, a red blobby E-shape and more seem to land from out of the blue. "Where did they come from? Whose are they?" asks an unseen narrator. "They're mine!" answers a chicken, assembled from the shapes. "I saw them lying around!" Manceau presents an array of options; he shows just how little an artist needs to depict an animal's defining characteristics. That same red blobby E that served as a comb on the chicken now functions as a fin on a fish; the gold pie-shape is its tail. Manceau uses a thick black line to fill out the rest of each animal featured.
The author-artist also suggests that art belongs to everyone--from the chicken to the fish, and later to a frog and snail. In the closing pages, the narrator bequeaths the shapes to young readers: "They're yours now too. What will you do?" Manceau offers just enough possibilities to ignite youngsters' imaginations, then sends them off to try some creations of their own. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness