A-B-A-B-A

K-Gr 3—Through rhyming text and colorful illustrations, readers are given examples of simple visual and numerical patterns—from circle-square-circle-square to 1-3-5-7. "See the colors? Green, red, gold/then green, red, gold, green, red./Once you catch on, you can guess/exactly what's ahead." As in earlier volumes in the series, Gable's whimsical feline characters appear throughout, demonstrating patterns, such as boy-girl-boy-girl in a very long line for ice cream. Though the buoyant narrative calls for reading aloud and the images are large enough for a modest group setting, students will need to look closely to appreciate at least one example—a book's pagination. The simple mathematical patterns are for a slightly older audience than Trudy Harris's preschool-friendly Pattern Fish (Millbrook, 2000). Cleary's latest title is a serviceable addition to nonfiction collections.—Jayne Damron, Farmington Community Library, MI