I Spy on the Farm

This innovative "I spy with my little eye" book has no dust jacket, the boards and binding are extra tough, and the corners are slightly rounded, enticing ers to reach out for it and experiment. Once inside, each two-spread sequence is geared toward success without stress. First we see the eye of a farm animal through a (fake) hole on the left and a glimpse of its body through a (real die-cut) hole on the right, while the text provides three clues. Above the die cut, "Something yellow that begins with a D," and below the hole, a word balloon appears to come from the next page: "Quack, quack!" Sure enough, a baby duck fills the following spread and confirms with another word balloon: "I'm a DUCKLING." Gibbs's expertly rendered digital art combines scribbly, brightly colored animals with more subdued backgrounds in clean cutout shapes, again helping the target audience by giving a calm visual on the first spread and an energetic payoff when the animal is revealed. Near the end of the book, we learn that the animals are all spying "YOU!" with their little eyes, which makes it nice and neat. What elevates this book from a well-executed novelty into meta-land is the final spread, on which a hole is cut all the way through the back cover board: "What can you spy with your little eye?" Whoa -- it's the whole world. lolly robinson