EAT TOGETHER

A board-book feast of colors, shapes, counting, and food.

Uncluttered pages feature little to no background detail in the appealing art, which presents simple, colorful shapes. On the first spread, there are three shapes, and accompanying spare, sans-serif type prompts, “Time to eat! 3 shapes get together to make….” The page turn reveals the three shapes assembled to form “a strawberry!” On the facing page of this reveal, an ant (unmentioned by the text) carries the strawberry on its back, with implied movement to the right and toward the next page turn. The next spread presents four shapes, which, when put together, create a cupcake, and subsequent spreads continue to increase the number of shapes and the complexity of the depicted foods. With each reveal, more ants arrive to march off with lettuce leaves, a cheeseburger, a roast turkey, and a pizza slice, in turn. The climactic spread presents a dilemma: The foods won’t fit down the hole of the anthill. The clever ants have a solution, however, and they disassemble the foods again into smaller shapes, inviting readers to play an amusing I Spy game to identify which pieces go to which foods. The resulting “feast” on the last page offers a final laugh when the ants reassemble the shapes to silly results. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Playful fare for toddlers.