<em>Can You See Me?</em> by Mikhala Lantz-Simmons and Mohammad Rasoulipour is an incredibly fun children's book that I actually had quite a bit of fun reading. There's a genuine and wonderful cleverness to how the illustrations in this book are constructed. The book is, as the cover suggests, a unique conglomeration of shapes, put together against a single color background in order to depict a specific animal that young children are meant to suss out.

Honestly, this is a pretty cute children's book. I love that it features an abundance of triangles to develop the shapes of the animals and ultimately I found it quite clever. Some are harder to determine than others, but fortunately, the rhyming text is there to assist when necessary.

Of course, as much as I did genuinely like this book, I did find myself at somewhat of a loss regarding the end message. It doesn't really seem to have one. Other than the fact that this book teaches about animals, triangles, and art there isn't really a whole lot to say for what children reading this are bound to learn. In that sense, I did very much enjoy the book but I don't know if I would go out of my way to get copies for any kids I know.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

This review will go live on the Reader Fox blog on June 18, 2020.

The story is cute. It would be nice to have blocks that come with it that the child could place on top of the images. A page that reveals the animals would be helpful too. Depending on the age of the child it may be difficult for them to know what animal is supposed to be each answer. The book also got repetitive.

I love how this book has a different sort of artwork, made by using only triangles to make recognizable pictures. Young kids will love it (and so will parents)!

I really like the idea of this book but I didn't think a lot of the pictures looked like what they're supposed to.

This was a bland story and some of the pictures are very abstract and hard for kids to tell what the pictures are. I think it’s more suited for older kids to guess what the pictures are.

This was such an adorable book! The illustrations are perfect for young children. All of the animals are made of triangles, which is so fun! It would be great if there was an "answer key" added to the back so that children could see the completed animal.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this. The art style was very up my alley. Not all of the animals were easy to see, but I liked that there were varying difficulty levels. It made the guessing game more fun.

You could probably read this for an interactive storytime but I think it would be even better one-on-one.

Received an eARC from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I like the concept of the book but it was hard to tell what the animals were when reading it via the adobe program. The colors on the pages were bold and beautiful and the rhymes themselves were nice and simple enough to guess what most of the animals were and sometimes I could "see" the animal on the computer but other times I couldn't see what it was supposed to be. I am going to look for this book in my local library to see if the concept is better in a regular book because I would love to read it to my toddlers.

I liked the idea behind this book but for me it was a little lacking in the execution

I thought that it was a good way to introduce children to the idea of camouflage and they could find the animals but some weren't that good, I thought the panda and the crocodile/alligator were the best. I can't see it being read more than once personally - it is 3 stars from me for this one

A clever book that makes you discover the animals within it with an abstract picture and a small riddle.

I really like reading interactive picture book with my children and students. This is pretty good for that.
Here the authors have used abstract art, to create animals in their surroundings. Each page contains an illustration of an animal made up entirely of triangles. I think the authors idea here is to read the clue and wait for the child to determine what creature is intended. . The book is pretty but rarely can one figure out the animal based on the geometric drawing. The clues, written in rhyme, are enough to figure out what the author WANTS you to see. For example: I chew on bamboo. Might that be a panda, do you think? Or, I spray my scent. The skunk is simply five triangles of different sizes. I think the artists like the art of Cubism or better yet, triangularism.

My favorite animal is the shark. I was able to identify it. For the cover art they used the giraffe which was the animal that was the most apparent. But here’s the thing, I went through the book again and I liked it more the second time. I think children may be be drawn to this unusual book. I started out with two stars and my opinion has jumped to four stars after further contemplation. At the end of the book the reader is asked what else do you see. The two page spread looks like constellations.

Nope, didn't like this book. I was not at all entertained. It was just not my cup of tea. ugh, I wanted to like it. However it was a good idea and very unique.
#Netgalley

I really love an interactive book - it's great for discussion with kids.
This book was actually more difficult that I expected, with some of the animals quite tricky to spot.
I was looking at the pictures with a three year old who knows his animals quite well, so I don't think it would work well with a younger audience that that.
A very cleverly put together book.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I was instantly curious about this book when I saw the cover. I then read the blurb and was even more curious. An abstract picture book? In which you have to kinda guess the animals? Mm, sure, I would take it. Seemed interesting.

I have to say I had fun reading it, but if it wasn't for the text next to the abstract animals I wouldn't have guessed the animals for about 80/85% of the book. For instance it was that they said it was antlers... otherwise I would just have thought they were floating triangles. :P I am also not sure if it is 2 pandas or if it is another animal featured so close together. *is confused* In the end I just went with it and focused on the text because I sure as hell didn't see any animals in most of these pictures. Maybe it is just not for me.

It is a fun idea, but I do think maybe things could have been easier. Maybe a bit more recognisable. A couple of animals were VERY easily recognisable, and others were just bit of triangles here and there. I wonder if kids can even recognise them without the text, because I am over 18 and sorry, I just didn't see it and that makes me worried if kids can see it.

Yes! This is exactly the kind of children's book that gets me excited and that I like to buy. It is interactive, imaginative and fun. I think the concept is unbelievably clever and I can definitely see myself picking up a copy of this one. It's great!

This book takes you to the wilds of Africa to look for exotic creatures. The catch is, you only get to see pieces of them. Triangular pieces of them, that is.

It was fun to try and figure out what animal was on each page, but if it weren't for the text, there are a few that I wouldn't have guessed. The lion and the seal were the most difficult to see. I'm still not even sure if I saw them correctly. Kids seem to have the capacity to use their imagination more than adults, so they may be able to see it just fine. This is a book that I would share at a storytime for ages 4+.

*Thank you NetGalley and the publisher of sharing a an e-copy in exchange for my honest review.*

Certainly clever, and hopefully inspiring, this bright picture book is inventive enough to really stand out as distinctive. About a dozen spreads, all with a gnomic, almost haiku-like text, alert us to the fact the design contains an animal, represented by sometimes as few as just four arranged triangles. Obviously some are going to work better than others – some involve a good squint, others are wittily evident – but I think this book is both really well crafted and simple enough to want the purchaser to experiment with their own designs. Other people are better placed than me to discuss the mental growth afforded the very young by interpreting such designs as we get here, but this is fun enough to not just seem a brain exercise. Four and a half stars.

I really liked what this book was attempting to do, and when it went well it was really great. The times my kid was able to guess the animal before reading the text he was so proud. There was one or two images that completely stumped him though even after reading the page and produced a little frustration.

Unfortunately when I downloaded this book every page was white without text. It looked like a cute book my kids would love. Please let me know if the issue is corrected. What drew me to this book was the great cover and an animal on the cover. My boys are really into animal books and I look forward to seeing this one.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a cool concept. It had various shapes that were made to look like animals if you used your imagination. Some of them were super easy to discover and some of them took some concentration. The text gave clues to what the animal could be. I loved trying to guess. what the animals were.