Animals Big and Small

PreS-K—These oversize books contain photos and design elements that are appropriately bright and colorful for young audiences. The rhyming texts are simple: "Eight coloring pencils./Drawing can be fun!/Eight fluffy sheep,/standing in the sun." However, they might be confusing for developing readers, e.g., in Animals there is a picture of a horse and a foal with the question, "Is Holly bigger than Heather? Let's see if you know!" But the answer isn't provided. Shapes asks readers to count circles on a page where girls are blowing bubbles, but some bubbles are mostly off the page—are these meant to be counted? When asked to count triangles, the text reads, "If you found at least three…," implying that there are more when there are not. Counting is the strongest of the series, with straightforward counting of objects, although even here the "Counting Challenge" at the end confuses. Marginal purchases.