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Reviewed by:
  • Woof! Woof!
  • Deborah Stevenson
Carter, David A. Woof! Woof!; written and illus. by David A. CarterLittle Simon, 200632p ISBN 1-4169-0805-6$12.95 Ad 3-5 yrs

Long known for his expertise in paper-engineering titles (see especially The Elements of Pop-Up, BCCB 1/00), Carter turns here to a simpler exploration of the cumulative power of shapes. Each leg of the visual journey starts with a question mark opposite a white page punctuated by die-cut geometrically shaped holes (in the first spread, eight long symmetrical triangles); turn that page, and the text reveals the use for that shape ("legs") while the facing page applies the white cutouts in relief on top of a simple landscape. As elements ("bodies," "tails," "heads") are added, it becomes clear that what's being created is a pair of dogs, which in the final spread are joined by a geometric riot that proves to be three yapping puppies. The book bends its own rules a little (there's no step that explains the creation of eye shapes within the pooches' heads), the visuals don't carry much conceptual pull as they did in Emberley's similarly formatted Go Away, Big Green Monster! (BCCB 3/93), and, ultimately, this is a lot of buildup just for a page of barking dogs. There's still some entertainment in the guessing game about the use of the shapes (the foreshadowing page scatters the shapes around rather than placing them in the location they'll be in the landscape, so their use can't be guessed from their position), and the landscape where the mutts romp is suitably simple without being uninteresting; Carter adds a touch of additional movement to his vignette by allowing the sun gradually to rise from just above the horizon to its apex in the sky by the end of the book, and the addition of the dogs' triangular jaws to make mouths results, of course, in a chorus of "Woof!" from every assembled dog. While Molly Bang's Picture This is a more effective employment of shapes for visual effect, this could interest kids not quite ready for that title in the creative possibilities of shapes in general. The book could therefore be an introduction to felt-board play (enterprising adults may even wish to translate the doggy shapes into felt as proof against the time when curious youngsters start peeling the applied shapes off the pages), entry-level origami, or just a wild time with construction paper.

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