Read, Read, Read, said the Baby: Floppers & Loppers by Stan Tekiela

Adventure Publications is a new publisher I looked at when I was at ALA in summer 2017. I've been looking at a few different books from them and I found one of their board books to review today.

Although it's not quite clear from the title, this is a book about animal ears. Each spread shows a photograph of an animal. There is a small white caption that labels the animal, an inset photograph showing a close up of their ear with a pop-out quote, and an additional fact about them in a brightly colored inset. So for a cricket there's a photograph of a cricket, an inset of their ear on their leg, and the text reads "This white spot on my leg is my ear!" and "Crickets' ears are on their front legs, below their knees."

The photo of an owl doesn't show its ears, which are hidden by feathers, but its feather tufts which are not ears (the text explains this). The book is a traditional square, sturdy cardboard, and the layout is fairly simple and uncluttered.

I like photographs for board books and simple illustrations. The concept of different creatures having different ears is probably best for at least a toddler age but even younger babies will enjoy looking at the animals. This is a good example of nonfiction in board books, as opposed to some other things which I will not mention here.

Verdict: A good addition to your board book collection.

ISBN: 9781591934240; Published 2013 by Adventure Publications; Borrowed from another library in my consortium