ZOOM!

A large-format board book with sliding, matching-game–style panels featuring things that move on land, sea, and by air.

This one is fodder for young readers who love everything on wheels. As in Babin’s Animals, illustrated by Julie Mercier (2018), this book includes a series of panels that allow for a matching game, wherein four sets of matching pairs are hidden behind sliding windows. The left-hand side of each double-page spread shows brightly-colored cartoon animals riding in or on the vehicles while the game is presented on the right-hand side. Each transportation set includes directives for ways to engage with the book (“Can you name and find all the vehicles that are yellow, red, or green?”), but they vary little from page to page and mostly follow the same predictable format. The “In the Sky” page features some unusual modes of transportation such as a hydroplane and paraglider, likely unfamiliar to younger readers (and not included in the matching game). The book provides opportunities to point to and name items, similar to a picture dictionary. It’s really less book and more game, which, while entertaining, does become repetitive for adults. It’s a good choice for travel and even for keeping little hands busy at a restaurant, because it is really something to play with rather than something to read.

More game than substance.