BOOK REVIEW: Double Take! A New Look at Opposites by Susan Hood, illustrated by Jay Fleck

Stephanie O'Connell | 31 May 2017 | Reply

BOOK REVIEW: Double Take! A New Look at Opposites by Susan Hood, illustrated by Jay Fleck

Walker Studio
June 2017
Hardcover, $24.99
Reviewed by Steph O’Connell

Picture Book

9/10

When it comes to opposites, it s all a matter of perspective! Lively text and fun retro art engage kids in the finer points of a favorite concept.

Writer Susan Hood and illustrator Jay Fleck lead us on a topsy-turvy fun-house journey into the concept of opposites and takes it to the next level with detours into relative terms and points of view (and a dollop of yin and yang for good measure).

There are countless books about opposites, and it’s definitely a popular topic for kids learning about the world. Double Take! is a great one to read aloud to children, and would be particularly fun for a class full of students, asking them to suggest the opposite word, and then to think more deeply about the relativity of certain words.

Who knows what is BIG
Unless there is SMALL?
Does SHORT measure up
except next to TALL?

Who’s STRONG and who’s WEAK is hardly perplexing.
But STRONG can look WEAK when a new champ is flexing!

The rhythm of the wording also help to make this great fun to read aloud, though at times one does have to wonder if the target group would quite get what is being said here, partially due to the need to make the story rhyme.

Who’s NEAR and who’s FAR
couldn’t be clearer,
but…
does NEAR become FAR
when FAR flies in NEARer?

And, while the beauty of this book is that it asks kids to look at the situation from another perspective, on one particular occasion, it is not entirely clear whose perspective we’re meant be observing. While this might be intentional, to encourage kids to look at the situation from another’s perspective, it runs the risk of being a little confusing.

All in all, though, this is a cute and clever book, and is bound to deliver hours of fun and many re-reads, whether in the home or the classroom.