PEEKABOO!

A wonderfully interactive 1990 Gomi creation that has been translated into English at last.

The board book opens wide to become nine different faces with two die-cut eyeholes that invite readers to use them as masks. This peekaboo game is played with mostly animals, such as a bear, a cat, a mouse, a penguin and a frog. The text encourages youngsters to guess what each animal is with a one-sentence clue on the upper-left corner of one page and the answer on the upper-right: “I like to eat honey. / I am a bear. // I like to chase mice. / I am a cat.” The endeavor takes a delightfully silly turn with the introduction of a robot that enjoys fixing things and a cheerful monster that likes to tickle. The last spread presents a brown-skinned child of unspecified gender who says, “I like to play peekaboo. / I am your friend.” Gomi’s flat watercolor cartoons in muted hues using simplified forms are perfect for peekaboo. Since many toddlers can be scared of masks, the small size of the book, which will only cover part of an adult face, and the friendly tone of the art, make the fun nonthreatening.

Little ones will delight in reading and playing this game again and again.