ANIMAL WORLD

This set of nine miniature board books introduces youngsters to animals spanning the globe.

Each book, measuring a little over 1¾ inches square and 1¼ inches thick, tackles a different set of creatures grouped by taxonomy (“Insects and Bugs”), habitat (“Forest Animals”), relationship with humans (“Pets”; “Farm Animals”), and more. Each title contains five chunky double-page spreads with an animal appearing on the recto and a one-word label centered on the white background of the verso. Four different illustrators worked on the simple cartoon illustrations, and it shows, with styles varying dramatically. For example, the duck from “Birds” is a stylized but fairly realistic mallard, and the duck from “Life in the Pond” looks like it belongs in a child’s bathtub. The back of each book features one-ninth of a scene featuring a few of the creatures from inside the pages, and when the books are all flipped over, kids can assemble them like a puzzle. The set is contained in a sturdy box with a magnetic closure, each book nestled in its own candy-box–like section. Cover images for each title appear on the bottom of the box to aid in placing them back in storage, a superfluous feature. The square, blocky shape of the books may mean that they prove more popular for little fingers as toys than books.

High on play value and low on informational or literary content.