  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 04/01/2018 Toddler-PreS—A clever blend of scanned images of wooden unit blocks and a perfectly adorable hand-drawn blue elephant set the stage of this counting and building book. Young readers will instantly be familiar with the elephant's actions; he carefully places four blocks vertically on top of each other until, "WOW! I did it! It's as tall as ME!" The pause of a page turn is enough to build suspense for the inevitable crash that follows. Poor elephant cries but continues to rebuild his tower. Background details such as sunflower yellow walls with trim and a shamrock green rug exude joyfulness. The final page turn reveals some basic math equations: one large rectangle unit block, standing next to two, then four, then eight blocks that all equal the same size when placed next to one another vertically. VERDICT A simply presented look at block play and the mathematics behind it. Perfect for early learning collections in both public and school libraries.—Lisa Kropp, Lindenhurst Memorial Library, NY - Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 04/15/2018 Attention, aspiring architects and engineers: a first builder’s blueprint for constructing really, really tall buildings has arrived! A rosy-cheeked, sky-blue elephant digs into his plastic orange blocks container and stacks one, two more, and four blocks to build a tower as tall as he is. But due to a wiggly, wobbly base, it ascends precariously, only to topple over in a dramatic “CRASH! BOOM!” catastrophe. After an open-mouthed wail, little elephant decides to try again, using the flat sides rather than the ends. Finally, after a few more attempts, a solid structure appears, to the smiling pachyderm’s satisfaction (“TA-DAH!”). Over generous white space, illustrations in bright primary colors incorporate both photographs and pencil drawings, encouraging a child’s computation, creativity, and problem solving. The tenacious elephant, clad in a purple sweater, appears on every page, and his expressive face conveys his every emotion, obvious in this simple story for very young children who want to construct with expertise and count as they go. - Copyright 2018 Booklist. Loading...
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