I CAN EXPLORE

In a follow-up to I Can Dance and I Can Play (2015), this is an interactive introduction to outdoor activities.

Two consistently aligned holes cut through the thick board pages allow children’s fingers to form the arms or legs of the young explorers or their animal companions. Simple rhyming quatrains describe each activity. Few of these are particularly toddler-friendly, such as hiking in the rainforest, hang gliding, and tandem bike riding, but they are appropriate to the theme. The childlike and colorful, thick-lined mixed-media illustrations feature children of varied ethnic backgrounds; tots in pink wearing pigtails buck gender stereotypes by dogsledding and surfing. The final page opens up into a gatefold with three spots to place fingers to create a bevy of kids paddling a giant canoe. Similarly, the simultaneously published I Can Dream offers youngsters the chance to turn their fingers into the arms or legs of different tots who aspire to be a firefighter, a vet, an astronaut, a marine biologist, a race car driver, and an artist. In both books, the fingers-as-legs gimmick works quite well, but it is not as successful when fingers are asked to substitute for animal legs or to be a stand-in for arms steering a car or paddling a canoe.

Likely to delight many digits.