The characteristics and possible functions of a dot are imaginatively described in this illustrated picture book, concluding that the shape's best use is as a period marking The End.
January 8, 2024
Circles of varied sizes fill the pages of this expansive ode to the sense of possibility that can be found in a simple dot. The titular opening line leads to a rhythmic list of things that “this little dot” isn’t: “It’s not/ just a blot/ on a page,” nor the “wide-open eye/ of a cat.” Rather, rhyming text points to the round mark’s scalability as well as its “oomph, roll, and zest.” Devernay, leaning on a limited palette of black, blue, red, and white, supplies shapely cut-paper visuals that often obliquely pair with Yolen’s text. In one spread, penguins and fish swim alongside an ink-squirting squid, accompanying “Not just a spot/ of ink/ on a shirt.” On another page, a white dog bounces a red dot high and low, until the orb halts by the curled-up pup, onto whose sleeping form black spots cascade. Coming to a sudden close, it’s a crisply energetic celebration that considers the humble dot’s many permutations. Ages 5–7.