BABIES LOVE OUTER SPACE

Black-and-white heart-shaped images of items from space.

This board book, which can stand up on its own so babies can interact with it during tummy time, features only the colors black and white, some images against an all-white background, others against an all-black one. Each illustration is inside of a heart shape: an astronaut, constellations, and a rocket ship, for example. There are also more unusual inclusions, like a rover, a satellite, and a black hole—lofty subject matter for babies but meaningful for discovery nonetheless. The illustrations are made up of thick lines and clustered dots, offering a sense of shadow, texture, and dimension and making these images more captivating. The heart framing of each illustration seems unnecessary aside from displaying a repeated shape. While all of this may very well appeal to infants, simply propping up this book in front of a baby (as caregivers are encouraged to do) won’t magically help them learn about outer space. The wordless approach provides room for caregivers to describe and name items however they’d like, potentially exposing little ones to all kinds of vocabulary and language, so long as adults are actually interacting with the child and the book. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Interesting images that rely on adult intervention for a more meaningful experience.