GUESS WHO'S IN THE TREES

Lift-the-flap lovers explore forest habitats, guessing what animals live in each, in this outing, one of a set of four.

Three clues, two on the verso and one on the flap that’s located on the recto, encourage little ones to guess before lifting the tempting, shaped flaps and revealing a photo cutout of the animal, parts of which peek out the sides and through die-cut holes in the simple cartoon backgrounds. These clues run the gamut in terms of both helpfulness and factuality, some of the “clues” anthropomorphizing the animals: “Who loves to swoop through the trees?” The reveal shows the entire animal along with one or two sentences describing another fact. “I do! I am a gibbon. I can swing up to 30 feet (9 meters) from one branch to another!” The specificity of animals included varies within books and across the set. Generic ones are easy enough for children to guess, but while this title reveals a “snake,” Guess Who’s in the Sand uncovers a “cobra.” Similarly, readers will find a butterfly and a woodpecker among the trees, but a snowy owl and an emperor penguin chick in the Snow. (And strangely, a hippo is in the Grass.) “Talking points” in the back of each book instruct adults as to how to best share the book with children and give the adult-child pair some things to do together, including learning more through research, mapping habitats, doing an activity and looking for similar animals near home.

Uneven, but children will enjoy the guessing and likely learn something all the same.