W IS FOR WOMBAT

One of those rarest of rare birds: a board book derived from a larger-format picture book that works and works well. Twenty-five images from Bancroft’s Possum and Wattle: My Big Book of Australian Words (2010) are reproduced, one to a page, set mostly against complementary solid-color backgrounds. As the subtitle promises, the subject is Australian: Some of the items pictured include boomerangs, dingo, koala and platypus, as well as the less-exotic but equally beautiful sun and river. The Aborigine artist’s style works perfectly for infant visual stimulation. Boldly outlined figures with intricate interior patterns rendered in high-contrast bright colors are a feast for the eyes. While the vocabulary built is a hemisphere or two away from cow, dog and car, the sounds are fabulous in themselves and open up worlds of phonetic possibility: quokka, numbat, lyrebird. Gorgeous. (Board book. 6 mos.-3)