INS AND OUTS

Intriguing stories, told using just two little words.

With its minimal text, this book invites the toddler and preschool set to make inferences about what’s going on in its immersive artwork. The opening illustration, labeled “IN,” shows a light-skinned child asleep in a bed as a cat slumbers at the youngster’s feet. The following image, labeled “OUT,” shows the same cat outside of the bedroom window, climbing a tree. While many other pages are fairly literal, others are more nuanced. A brown-skinned child with a cochlear implant sits alone on a swing, away from the crowd (“OUT”). On the next page (“IN”), the child rides in a pickup truck, smiling with an upbeat-looking adult. Given how spare the text is, the illustrations do some heavy lifting. In one scene, a Dalmatian chows down on some crayons (“IN”); the next page portrays the dog’s multicolored droppings (“OUT”). An especially enticing image depicts several joyful children inside a parachute, awash with the glow of the nylon panels. Perera’s textured, collagelike illustrations communicate much without exposition; children will look, linger, and even elaborate on what they see. This book lands solidly at the intersection of developmentally appropriate and quality storytelling. The characters are diverse.

Visually engaging and relevant to little readers.