WIGGLES

If your fingers are ready to dance, then this is the book for you!

On every page of this board book, children are instructed to use their fingers to follow cutout fluorescent tracks describing shapes that range from straight lines to squares to spirals. Readers will delight in the book’s interactive nature and playful language: Zuchelli-Romer’s buoyant narration, as adapted by Franceschelli, gleefully invites children to “wriggle,” “wiggle,” “twiddle,” “twaddle,” and, most importantly, “dance.” While the text makes excellent use of onomatopoeia, as well as the second-person address, the book’s design is uninspiring, using jarringly bright colors for the shapes and flat, white type against powder-blue backgrounds. Furthermore, pages that ask children to simultaneously use fingers on the right and left hands to follow complex shapes are too difficult for the age group of 2 to 4 suggested on the back cover. The book is more appropriate for ages 5 to 8 but may be a challenge to use in classroom or read-aloud settings.

Overall, the design and developmental aspects of this book fall short of the promise of the engaging, rhythmic text.