Read 'n' Play: Our underwater world: A first dive into oceans, lakes, and rivers by Sue Lowell Gallion, illustrated by Lisk Feng

Phaidon press released the first of these unique board books back in 2020 with Our World. It's a unique and fun concept; a shaped board book that opens up into a globe, held together with a magnetic fastening within the pages. Each subsequent edition has explored some other concept of the earth and this one focuses on the lakes, rivers, and oceans of the world.

Each spread looks like a 2-D globe, with an image on the circle above and the text on the "stand" below. The images show lush underwater kelp forests, with smiling sea otters holding vivid red sea urchins, massive schools of fish swirling through the light-brushed ocean, and the strange life gathering around underwater geysers.

Gallion's text on the "stand" of the globe is in two sections. On the left, there is a simple sentence of a poem. "Rivers run, oceans flow. Every wondered what's below? Let's explore, take a dive.../The underwater world's alive!" On the right is a more dense but still brief paragraph, giving details about the specific image or aspect of the watery world that is shown. This could be read to a fairly young child just with the simple sentences or pored over with an older child using the lengthier text.

The trickiest part of using these books is figuring out the right collection to put them in. Although technically a board book, with thick cardboard pages, even the simple text is too complex for the board book audience and the art, while lovely, is not really suited to very young children. It's also not, strictly speaking, a nonfiction title since the information it includes is brief and there are no sources or notes. The book's size and shape, tall and narrow, make it difficult to place on a typical library shelf as well.

So what do you DO with these? Well, they make awesome components for circulating storytime kits, especially if you have teachers and homeschool families who use your kits. I like to include a variety of books, manipulatives, and toys in my kits and these books are very popular inclusions. They are also sturdy and stand up well to the hard use, plus they make a nice multi-age offering. I've put them out on display in our activity area, but people always want to take them home, so it's better to figure out a way to circulate them, in my opinion.

Verdict: An excellent addition to circulating kits, these could also be added to a pop-up/activity book collection or, at a pinch, to your board book collection.

ISBN: 9781838667009; Published August 2023 by Phaidon; Review copy provided by publisher