Preview: Ivan Brunetti’s ‘Shapes And Shapes?’ — More Toon Books Brilliance For The Youngest Readers

The latest release from Toon Books, Ivan Brunetti’s Shapes and Shapes?, promises plenty of fun for even the youngest of comic readers.

Circles, triangles, and squares: the game is on!

That’s the pitch line for this latest Toon Books release. Now, I’ve loved Toon Books since they first launched way, way back in 2008. And in a former life working in a primary school with the finest graphic novel library in the country, I can attest to just how much enjoyment was had by children lining up to read the various books.

My latest dip into their catalogue came with Frank Viva‘s delightful Gotta Go!, and their next release, where Ivan Brunetti takes a journey through the possibilities of all sort of shapes looks just as wonderfully well done.

“The more you look at this book, the more shapes you’ll find. My drawings always start with roughly doodled simple shapes, which I then slowly ‘smooth’ out. If they start to get too complicated, I try to make them simple again.”– Ivan Brunetti

Brunetti’s an art professor, artist, and cartoonist who’s published many books for children and adults, including the Eisner Award-winning Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice. His previous books for children, also from Toon Books, include Wordplay, about compound words, 3×4, about basic multiplication, and the Eisner-winning Comics: Easy as ABC.

Here’s Toon Books’ PR for Shapes and Shapes? – 

“As a child, Ivan Brunetti loved making images out of simple shapes. He may be a respected art professor these days, but he has never grown out of it. In his new book, Shapes and Shapes?, Ivan draws on what he has learned as an artist and an educator to teach young readers a basic yet exciting lesson in art and math: the world, from the playground to outer space, is made of shapes! In his hands, circles, triangles, and rectangles explode, divide, and multiply, becoming hearts and stars, a bus full of kids, a ponytail, a cyborg, even Saturn and its ring! Kids will giggle as they learn to see in a whole new way. Who knew shapes could be so much fun?”

Shapes and Shapes? by Ivan Brunetti was published by Toon Books on 3 October 2023.

Toon Level 1, for ages 4+, grades K to 1.