LUMOSITY RAINDROPS FULL

Additional facts about the animal appear in a smaller font, such as: “Beavers have transparent eyelids to help them see under water.” The gathering of land, air, and water animals includes a raven, a flying squirrel, and a sea lion. The narrative is written from the point of view of a parent talking to their child: “If you were a beaver, I would gnaw on trees with my teeth to build a cozy lodge for us to sleep in during the day.” Text appears in big, easy-to-read type, with the name of the creature in boldface. This reassuring picture book exemplifies how parents throughout the animal kingdom make homes for their offspring. (This book was reviewed digitally with 7-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 53.3% of actual size.) Unfortunately, while most of the creatures from the seek-and-find appear in poses that match the illustrations in the challenge, not all of them are consistently represented. One page of backmatter offers a quick guide to eight easily confused pairs, and a second turns a subsequent exploration of the book into a seek-and-find of 15 creatures (and one dessert) hidden in the desert. As the story progresses, the colors of the sky shift from dawn to dusk, providing subtle, visual bookends for the narrative. Snappy back-and-forth paired with repetition and occasional rhyme enhances the story’s appeal as a read-aloud.

Dark outlines around the characters make their shapes pop against the softly blended colors of the desert backgrounds.

LUMOSITY RAINDROPS FULL

This picture book conveys the full narrative in spirited, speech-bubbled dialogue set on expressive illustrations of talking animals. As the ground squirrel (not to be mistaken for a chipmunk (even though Jack cheekily calls it “Chippie”) and Jack engage in playful discussion about animals, a sneaky coyote prowls after them through the Sonoran Desert. Jack is “no Flopsy, Mopsy, or Cottontail,” but a “H-A-R-E, hare!” Like sheep and goats, or turtles and tortoises, rabbits and hares may look similar, but hares are bigger, their fur changes color in the winter, and they are born with their eyes wide open. A hare and a ground squirrel banter about the differences between related animals that are often confused for one another.

Lumosity raindrops