COLORS

A concept board book invites little ones to explore and name colors; companion volumes do the same for shapes and numbers.

Eight colors take center stage in this visually appealing book. Red, yellow, blue, orange, green, purple, brown, and black are each given four pages, each filled with bold and stylized but readily recognizable representations of objects in the corresponding color. There are some interesting choices for a few of the objects. The lobster and crab are red, for instance—their cooked color, not their living color; gooseberries, a fruit not many children are familiar with, are green. Companion volume Shapes shares a similarly pleasing design aesthetic. Here, squares, triangles, circles, rectangles, and ovals are the main characters, with a fox and a mole playing the role of presenters. Going a step beyond most other shape concept books, Reiss introduces three-dimensional forms, such as squares making cubes, triangles making pyramids, and circles making spheres. And in Numbers, typical (six birthday candles; 10 toes) and not-so-typical (a five-lobed horse-chestnut leaf; 16 pigeons) objects that demonstrate numbers are arranged cleanly on the page. Humans of a variety of skin colors share the pages. All books will be looked at and looked at again by children with their adult readers or on their own.

Basic yet striking, this book and its companions make fine additions to the ever expanding concepts bookshelf.