Books Always Everywhere

PreS—Babies, toddlers, and a variety of animals accompanied by books as they read on the swings, while climbing trees, on rainy days, at the beach, etc. The text has a nice flow, consisting of two words per page, e.g., "Book wide" shows children surrounding a picture of a crocodile; the facing page reads, "Book tall" and features a child and a giraffe. All of the characters have identical facial features: dots for eyes and simple semicircle smiles, differentiated only by hair, skin tone, etc. Otherwise, the mixed-media illustrations have some charming details, such as children reading books whose titles and/or text coincide with their activities. As the kids cuddle in bed with some sweater-clad sheep, they are reading Counting Sheep, while at the park they read Trees Are the Bees Knees and Ooops-a Daisy! The soft, mostly pastel pictures have a great deal of texture, and children are likely to try and feel the pages. They will also have fun spotting the little mouse that cavorts somewhere on every page.—Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ