In this amusing concept book, Toronto husband-and-wife team Sheryl and Simon Shapiro explore the idea of mixtures, both edible (like oil and vinegar for salad dressing) and otherwise (like blue and yellow paints to make green, or flour and water for paste). Some of the mixtures are a bit more abstract, like the various ball-playing skills of different children who make a good team, or the instruments needed to make up a band.

Each of the mixtures is presented in two four-line verses, illustrated by expressive and suitably zany pictures by veteran illustrator Dušan Petricic. The verse flows jauntily with unforced rhymes, and is easy and fun to read aloud. There is nothing didactic about the text, however; indeed, a cheerful spirit of naughtiness runs throughout both pictures and verse. The pleasure the Shapiros take in words is obvious, as in the opening poem, “Mixtures,” where we learn that stirring and squooshing, squishing and mooshing different things can result in a brand new thing. Petricic’s clever sequence of pictures for this verse shows us how mixing ideas, letters, and pictures can result in a particularly delightful thing – a new picture book.

In an afterword, the Shapiros note that their final poem, “Goodnight,” departs somewhat from the main idea of the book in listing bedtime rituals rather than any kind of mixture, but they say they included the poem because they like it a lot. It’s easy for readers to respond to this sort of enthusiasm.