Counting Colorful Shapes

Hill (Urban Animals of Washington, D.C.) combines counting, shapes, and colors in a book built around photographs of architectural details in structures within the Art Deco District of Miami Beach, Fla. Simple, direct phrases, set opposite each photo, take readers from one to 10 (“1 yellow diamond/ 2 white octagons”); the shapes are also echoed in tidy borders that frame each spread. The vivid colors and bold shapes may leave readers curious about the broader context of the buildings and neighborhood from which they hail, but even without this information it’s an intriguing glimpse at an architecturally distinctive community. Ages 2–5. (Feb.)