Sam Sorts

A fine mess, indeed. "Sam's things are in a heap. Time to tidy up." Sam doesn't require a bulldozer, or even a broom, because he's a kid with an orderly mind: "First he finds Obo the robot, one of a kind. Then two snarling dinosaurs, three little boxes, and four fake foods." He discovers that the categories into which he sorts his things can overlap ("Spider Rock joins the other rocks. Sam's favorite rock is the round one. He looks for more round things"). He discovers that toys can be grouped according to rhyme (he pairs a box with a toy fox) and can be sorted by texture, smell, color, and more. He discovers fine distinctions: there are "things with wings that fly" (e.g., a paper airplane), "things without wings that fly" (a superhero), and "things with wings that don't fly" (a penguin). This entertaining higher-order concept book is propelled by omniscient narration ("How many things is that?"; "What else comes in twos?"; "Uh-oh") but soars because of Jocelyn's invitingly detailed hand-cut paper collages, which reach their greatest glory on a page that resembles a Pac-Man screen on which Sam plays both predator ("Some things Sam bites") and prey ("And some things bite Sam"). Everything ends up back in a heap that Sam transforms into a work of art--and provides a chance for keen-eyed viewers who have taken note of the book's subtitle to make sure that no object has been lost in the shuffle. nell beram