WHO'S HIDING?

Cherubic toddlers discover various creatures under flaps in a backyard setting.

The text poses simple questions (“Who’s hiding behind the gate?”), and readers answer them by opening each gate-, leaf- or flower-pot–shaped flap to find a hiding animal and a one-word caption. The last scene refreshingly breaks this pattern and features a “baby” hiding in the playhouse. One member of a multicultural cast of sitting and cruising toddlers acts as a reader stand-in on each double-page spread. Braun’s smoothly colored cartoons are clear, engaging and accessible—ideal for youngsters learning to identify the world. A tell-tale animal body part peeks out from behind the industry-standard–strength flap to give readers a hint as to the hider. The text is appropriately simple, but it also introduces a few vocabulary-building words, such as “watering can” and “hutch.”

As with Peekaboo Baby (2012) before it, Braun has created a lift-the-flap winner.