ALL ABOUT ANIMALS!

This busy board book is full of facts and flaps to open.

In this informational board book that collects snippets from the Did You Know? series for preschoolers, the 11 featured animals are all over the map, from the common (chicken and rabbit) to more exotic (elephants, hippos, zebras, and kangaroos). Some, such as sharks and jellyfish, live in water. Salamanders represent amphibians, and ants and bees round out the critters included. Each two-page spread includes wordy text, often in the form of questions, about each animal’s particular characteristics. Many of the concepts (such as size, weight, size of litter, number of teeth) and much of the vocabulary (such as “dense” or “colonies”) is too advanced for the board-book audience—unsurprising given the book’s provenance. Most of the spreads include two or three flaps. The pages about rabbits and ants have five flaps each, while the elephant, zebra, and jellyfish each warrant only one large flap, so children may find themselves scraping vainly at several unyielding spots. The cartoon illustrations have the look of toys designed to highlight stereotypical features of each animal.

Both too complicated for board-book readers and too limited for older readers, this adaptation does not live up to its title; a more accurate one would be Too Much About a Few Animals.