Where's the Pair?

PreS-Gr 2—Animal lovers and picture book sleuths will find much to enjoy in this follow-up to The Odd One Out (Candlewick, 2014). Each spread features a different group of animals, from chameleons to yaks to beetles, and encourages readers to find the matching pair among a variety of sizes, colors, and body positions. Some pages provide a real challenge, requiring close inspection and making this the perfect step up from simpler spotting books. Vibrant, folksy mixed-media illustrations in a rainbow of colors make the depicted animals at once realistic and appealing without becoming garish, while charming details like bears wearing scarves add a touch of whimsy. Rhyming text flows beautifully and never feels forced, using a wide vocabulary to continually encourage pair detection: "although all their patterns/ are similar types,/which two are sporting/identical stripes?" As an added bonus, several pages include the proper name for the animal's group—a sloth of bears, a romp of otters.