ANIMALS

Readers are challenged to seek and find animals from among complex cut-paper patterns.

The first of each pair of double-page spreads opens onto a solid-colored spread labeled with a continent (“South America”) or an environment (“The Oceans”) on verso and a large, evocatively shaped die-cut animal representative of that geographic area on recto. Glance through the purple Oceania kangaroo die cut to a collaged page teaming with miniscule, precisely trimmed local animals artfully arranged into a dizzying tableau. Though the collage work is skillful and the matte colors are harmonious—khaki, rust, and olive kangaroos; maroon kiwis and platypuses; and a few scattered lime crocodiles and turtles—the tightly crammed animals feel overwhelming, like a piece of frenetic scrapbooking paper. Busy pages make the “Can you find…?” counting challenge opposite the collage frustrating for a board-book audience. While Asia’s large, patterned “1 panda” or colorfully distinct “3 peacocks” are easy enough to spot, smaller animals, such as the “5 wild boars,” melt into the visual cacophony. Some, like Europe’s reindeer and horses, are difficult to visually differentiate, and budding naturalists may rail about the section combining penguins and polar bears in “the Arctic and the Antarctic.” Placing the ethnically ambiguous child floating through the world in a hot air balloon on each page (or, cleverly, in scuba gear on the “Oceans” page) is a nice touch.

Unique, ambitious art and concept but too challenging for the toddler set.