This large, sturdy board book offers plenty of seek-and-find fun.
Each double-page spread is covered by a group of endearing, almost-identical animals and features questions designed to prompt readers to sort them and spot their differences. The initial pages, for instance, feature 11 very similar elephants and the questions: “Who has a curly little tail? And who is ready to go to a party? Who is big and who is small?” Children will easily divide the elephants into the categories of big and small, but they will need to look more closely to find the elephant with the curly tail and the one wearing a party hat. Each spread asks readers to identify different aspects or features of the animals, but there is always a partygoing creature to spot. In addition to finding the partygoer, the page of zebras asks children to find the happy and sad zebra and, rather surprisingly, the one “who just went to the bathroom.” The companion volume, In, Out, and All Around, follows a similar format, except that it focuses on relationships such as in, on, over and across instead of opposites. The translation (from the original Dutch) results in some awkward phrasing, but the point is always clear.
Visually appealing, this offering will provide some enjoyable practice in categorizing, sorting and identifying differences. (Board book. 3-5)