The Shape Family Babies

By: Kristin Haas
Illustrated by: Shennen Bersani 
Publisher: Arbordale Publishing
Publication Date: February 2014
ISBN: 978-1628552119
Reviewed by: Deb Fowler
Review Date: March 2014

Wedding bells were ringing and soon “a rectangle and a rhombus fell in love” and were married. They were all excited when they learned they were going to have a baby, but were wondering what it would look like. Perhaps the baby would look like Mother Rhombus and “have four equal sides.” But then again, it just might look like Father Rectangle and would “have four right angles.” They were all excited and could hardly wait until their baby arrived. It was a big surprise when they got to the hospital and found out that the big surprise was not one, but three babies! There was something very unusual about one of them though.

Rhombus Jr. looked exactly like her mother and Rectangle Jr. looked like his father. The third baby was, well ... rather different and they didn’t know quite what to name their third beautiful baby. She looked like both of her parents with “four right angles and four equal sides.” It was a puzzling situation and they decided to consult the family. Cousin Triangle thought they could name her Polygon while Cousin Trapezoid thought Parallelogram was as good a name as any. All kinds of names were suggested including Quadrangle, Quadrilateral, Rectombus, and even Rhombangle. None of them seemed quite right, but someone had to know what to name that baby!

This is a fun tale that will help young students learn about geometric shapes. The tale of the Shape family will help them learn not only the names, but also what they are comprised of. For example, when Aunt Hexagon talks about naming the baby, she says that “She has four angles. We could name her Quadrangle.” Like all the other characters in this book, her body is shaped like the shape she’s describing. Some of them have background illustrations showing a visual mathematical representation. The artwork is simple, thus bringing the shapes to the foreground. There are four pages of activities in the back of the book. Additional complementary activities can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Quill says: This is an excellent book that will help young students learn about basic geometric shapes!