The Museum of Shapes

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Author(s)

Sven Völker

Publisher Name

Cicada Books

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

October 01, 2025

ISBN13

978-1800660595

ISBN10 or ASIN

Welcome to the Museum of Shapes. Alma is the curator of the museum. She decides which shapes should go where.

Triangles have three sides and three angles. Can you help Alma find all the triangles on the shelves? Almas favorite shape is a circle. All the points on the edge of a circle are the same distance from its center. Not all shapes are geometric. Some lines are wiggly and messy. Can you make a wiggly line with your body?

This is an engaging and informative book about the shapes that make up our world. The narrative framework is complemented by interactive texts and gorgeous, minimalist illustration, shedding new light on the beauty of geometry.

Editor reviews

2 reviews

clever and educational picture book

March 05, 2026 (Updated: June 19, 2026)

Overall rating

4.5

Plot

5.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

5.0

THE MUSEUM OF SHAPES is an educational and interactive picture book that discusses shapes. The book begins with the curator, Alma, and her dog arriving to the museum. They have a lot of shapes to consider and classify. Readers will learn about basic shapes, beginning with a point and lines, before learning about angles and types of 2D and 3D shapes.

What I loved: This is a very interactive read with lots of questions and educational points made for young readers. The simplicity of images and directness of text work very well for toddlers and preschoolers who will love exploring the magic of shapes. Questions posed to the readers are age appropriate and encourage further thought on each page, adding to the educational aspects of the read.

The book covers a lot of different shapes, including those with different numbers of sides and angles, as well as three-dimensional shapes. The text explains everything very well and in simple terms that will really appeal to little ones.

The museum setting is quite clever with a character categorizing and curating the shapes alongside the reader. Children will enjoy the character and small story that come along with all the math and learning about shapes.

Final verdict: THE MUSEUM OF SHAPES is a fantastic picture book that teaches about shapes to young readers. Simple illustrations and straight-forward text are perfect for toddlers and preschoolers who will also enjoy the interactive questions sprinkled throughout.

Olivia Farr, Staff Reviewer Top 10 Reviewer 2398 reviews

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Art isn't All Square

October 17, 2025 (Updated: June 19, 2026)

Overall rating

3.8

Plot

3.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Alma is the curator for the Museum of Shapes. Along with her dog, Max, she decides which shapes go into the museum, as well as how different collections of shapes will be displayed. We are introduced to many shapes, starting with the simple point. There are shapes with different numbers of sides, some with curved lines, and some that are three dimensional. There are even shapes that are blobby and silly, like oak leaves and a splat of ink. Alma arranges all of the shapes and has a grand opening for the museum that is echoed in all of the shapes in the night sky. I loved the author's note at the end telling us that Alma's museum is based on the real Museum of Concrete Art and Design in Ingolstadt, Germany!

Good Points

This has a little more math involved than many basic books about shapes. There is good information about lines joining points and creating angles, which is a good introduction to geometry. The inclusion of the base of a pyramid and a cube being the same was interesting, as was the concept that three dimensional shapes cast shadows! Any introduction to numbers, geometrical concepts, or math is great for young learners. I only wish that there had been a little more about fractions, since I know how much some students struggle with these concepts even in middle school!

The illustrations are bright and simple, but Max is patterned the same as the brick building. There are plenty of opportunities for young readers to identify and point out different shapes; I particularly like the page that states that most objects are made up of a variety of shapes! Breaking a toy truck into a square, a rectangle, and circles is really good practice.

This felt a bit like Walsh's Mouse Shapes, and also goes well with Cornille's Big, Little: A Book of Opposites, Boldt's Colors vs. Shapes, Oikawa and Takeuchi's Circle, Triangle, Elephant and Miranda and Comstock's Tangled. Of course, now I'm wondering what happened to the cardboard cylinder of wooden blocks I had as a child; I know that my grandson will need blocks like that when reading The Museum of Shapes!