Not All Animals Are Blue: A Big Book of Little Differences

Newcomer Boutignon, a French author/artist, invites readers to examine five animals on one side of the spread, read five descriptive sentences on the other, and determine which sentence describes which animal. Working in pencil and watercolor, Boutignon confers on her creatures an elegance that they maintain even when they are wearing flippers or their umbrellas are being blown inside-out. “Five Otters, Ready for the River,” one group is labeled. Each wears a purple swimsuit, but they're all subtly different; one wears a two-piece swimsuit, another a suit with polka dots and so on. “A bathing cap!” reads a sentence. “She's practicing her diving,” reads another. Children won't have any trouble matching words to pictures. Occasionally the sentences require the child to make a deductive leap—to decide which raccoon could be the most relaxed, for example, or to understand that the sentence “Look! Look what she got!” refers to the mouse shown taking a doll out of a box rather than the mouse choosing which present to open. Colored fonts quietly key sentences to pictures. Absorbing, lasting entertainment for younger readers. Age 2–6. (Mar.)