"Shapes" is one of four titles in Gymboree's newest board book series for preschoolers (other titles are "Alphabet", "Colors", and "Numbers"). In the same fun and colorful style as other Gymboree books it teaches children about 10 basic geometric shapes, including examples from the real world. At the bottom of each page, you'll see the name of the shape translated into French, German, Spanish, and Italian (including pronunciation guide).

This book is very simply composed without any extra explanations or stories. The colors are fun without being zany or distracting, and I think that the added component of learning other languages is a neat idea (although I'm not really sure if I'll ever need to know how to say "crescent" in Italian!).

On the down side, I haven't seen it really capture my kids' attention. The onus falls on the parent to use the building blocks presented in the book and translate it into fun activities (that you'll have to come up with on your own). And yet, I still think this book offers enough value to be worth a try.

My bottom line: it could be better, but I still give it a qualified thumbs up.