Better Together

Animals discover they are not alone.There's strength in numbers in this board book. Each page features a single animal looking for some sort of assistance. When little readers lift the large flaps on the recto of each spread, the scene changes to a group of animals solving the problem. A lone prairie dog nervously confronts a snake but is then defended by his family once the flap is lifted. A baby crow hungrily spots a worm out of reach in a tree; it's then lowered by her mother so she can eat it. The book ends with a brown-skinned baby alone in a living room, and the flap lifts to reveal loving dads (one white, one black), siblings, and grandparents. The illustrations are made of comfortably round lines and are bright with a primary-color palette that little readers are quite familiar with. There is value added with vocabulary that introduces the names of animal babies and collective names, where appropriate. This is likely to be overshadowed by the die-cut shapes in each lifting flap that, when closed, isolate the single animal that is depicted with its family underneath. These cutouts are quite detailed, including tails and individual toes, and although the pages are of sturdy stock, they are likely to fall victim to little fingers before long. A pleasant introduction to the power in sticking together. (Board book. 1-3)

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