Sunday, September 15, 2013

Two Pop and Play Board Books

Zoo Animals. (Pop & Play). Simon Abbott. 2013. Kingfisher. 10 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Monkeys swing through the trees.
What noise do they make?
Chatter! Chatter!
Pandas eat bamboo.
Crunch!
Peekaboo!
Say hello to the tiger.
Count the bugs.
Roar!

Zoo Animals is a pop-up board book. Each spread reveals a fun pop for little ones. Monkeys swing on the vine, for example, and a crocodile opens wide and snaps. The text is simple and direct. It isn't the most amazing text ever. But it works well enough, I suppose. The illustrations are bright and fun. My favorite pages: the monkeys, the tiger, and the crocodiles. (My least favorite spread is the panda.) Your little one would need to be old enough not to pull on the pop-ups. A few rips could take all the fun out of this one. But if your little one is gentle with books, then this one definitely has appeal!

Things That go (Pop & Play) Simon Abbott. 2013. Kingfisher. 10 pages. [Source: Review copy]

The racecar whizzes past. What shape are the wheels? Vroom!
The digger scoops up dirt. Count the builders.
Chug! Chug!
The boat bobs up and down.
Where is the dolphin?
Toot! Toot!

Things That Go is another book in Kingfisher's Pop and Play board book series. The focus this time is on vehicles. Some of the movements (the pop-ups) are great. I really loved the last two, the train and the rocket. Others didn't thrill me. The text is simple. But the flow could be a bit better perhaps. Though I think questions that ask readers to interact with the illustrations are good, at least in theory. The book's main appeal may be the pop-ups. They can be fun! For little hands that can be gentle, this one may work.

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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