Caramel reviews Leo + Lea by Monica Wesolowska and Kenard Pak

Today Caramel reviews a beautiful picture book titled Leo + Lea, written by Monica Wesolowska and illustrated by Kenard Pak. As always, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

The book bunnies received this book as a review copy.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, can you tell us a bit about this book?

Caramel: Maybe I can read you the description on the back cover?

S: Sure, let us start with that.

C: “This beautiful friendship story, inspired by the Fibonacci sequence and cleverly constructed using its mathematical pattern, celebrates different ways of seeing and being in the world, as well as how math connects us to one another.” That’s it.

S: I guess that is a good summary.

C: Yes.

S: So who are the friends in the book?

C: Leo and Lea. You should know that from the title!

S: You are right of course. So tell me about Leo and Lea.

C: Well, Leo is a boy who likes counting things. And Lea is a different person. She likes drawing and coloring patterns.

S: The book starts with Leo counting, right?

C: Yes. And he counts two trees, three squirrels, and five steps, and so on.

S: Oh, yes, I can see the Fibonacci sequence showing itself: Leo is 1, counting is 1, then the two trees is 2, and then the three squirrels is 3, and the five steps are 5.

C: Yes, and the words about them are the same number too. So The three squirrels are not just three squirrels, but they are “three noisy squirrels” so it makes three words. Then the five steps are “five big steps to school” and that is five words. And then comes 8 and then 13, and 21.

S: Yes, when we were reading this, at this point you realized the numbers had a pattern.

C: Yes, each number is the sum of the two numbers right before it. So 8 is 3 plus 5, and 13 is 5 plus 8, and so on.

S: And then you could guess that the next page would have 34 words.

C: Yes, and then there is a page with fifty-five words. I think. I am not sure. I did not count that one. That is a lot of words and I am sure I will lose track.

S: I can imagine. So that is kind of neat, no? The words and the numbers match the same pattern!

C: Yes, I did not notice that before we began rereading the book together. I thought it was just a love story.

S: Well, it is not quite a love story. It is a friendship story. and Leo and Lea become friends because they both like patterns and so can understand each other.

C: Yes, I know that now, and so I like the book more.

S: I know. Neither you nor Marshmallow like things to get too mushy. But this is not at all mushy. It is about two kids finding that they like patterns in different ways.

C: Yes, Leo likes patterns in numbers and Lea likes to draw patterns. So they can understand each other.

S: So let us look at the pictures a bit. Can you describe them?

C: They are colorful.

S: They reminded me a bit of some of the books illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault that you have read a while back. Do you remember those?

C: Yes, I can see that. But this book is a lot more colorful. And I did count the kids on the page for fifty-five and there are fifty-five people on it including Leo and the teacher.

S: How about the other pages?

C: Yes, just like on each page for a number there are that many words, there are that many pictures of some thing about that page. Like on the page for thirteen there are thirteen blossoms that Lea drew on her paper.

S: That is cool. So do you think this could be fun for a little bunny to read together with a big bunny and count things together?

C: Yes. Lots of little bunnies like counting things.

S: You do.

C: Yep.

S: So how would you describe the book in three words?

C: Colorful, numberful, and fun.

S: Totally! Okay, so it is time to wrap this review up then. What would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!