Where in the World?

K-Gr 3—Featuring format over information, this concept book encourages readers to search for "prize box" pop-ups through spreads featuring cartooned animals on a race to find cities of the world. Older readers might get the humor—an ostrich enjoys British tea, animals surround the treasures of the Louvre, or animal friends hang from the trolley cars in San Francisco. The race for package prizes begins with New York and takes readers through Europe and the Far East, with images of cities on each vividly colored page, busily filled with representations of architecture or art associated with them. The three-dimensional package boxes do encourage page turning, but the clutter of images and color overwhelms the spare, small-font text. Eight cities are featured; the book ends with two sentences about each one. With encouragement to search within detailed scenes for each city, the book is obviously an invitation to young readers to keep pages turning and investigate around the world. However, with so much distraction, the topic may be lost or even beyond the concerns of average primary-grade children, as the book obscures the city representations with too many fantasy images and packaged surprises (the Johannesburg street scene could be anywhere in the U.S.—nothing specific identifies the city). A marginal purchase.—Mary Elam, Learning Media Services Plano ISD, TX