cover image My First Look at Colors

My First Look at Colors

Stephen Oliver, Board Books. Random House Books for Young Readers, $9 (18pp) ISBN 978-0-679-80535-9

These four titles in the My First Look At series contain crisp, imaginatively chosen images in bold, vibrant colors. Shapes includes cookies, a sea urchin and green marbles in its spread that introduces circles. In Numbers , photographs of brightly patterned gloves (some are puppet mittens) set off the number nine, while 100 nonpareil candies fill a mouthwatering spread. Taking the concepts one step further, Numbers and Sizes end with a provocative twist--the former depicts groups of already presented objects and asks, ``How many?''; and Sizes introduces ``Growing. Our hands get bigger as we grow.'' The caption accompanies photos of four hands ranging from pudgy baby to hairy man. Chock full of child-accessible items that nearly bound off the pages, these books are an entertaining, worthwhile addition to the plethora of offerings in this genre. Ages 1-5. (May)