SOME OF THESE ARE SNAILS

The Ehlert-Gravett mashup you didn’t know you needed.

It’s likely many readers will see the influence of Lois Ehlert in Higgins’ collage art—cut from hand-painted paper and then assembled digitally. The simple, colorful forms that make up the illustrations in this concept book invite readers to play an I-spy sort of game prompted by text, with questions like, “Can you sort by color?” “Can you sort by size?” and “Can you sort by shape or find the animals with eyes?” Other parts of the text echo Emily Gravett’s playful storytime staple Orange Pear Apple Bear (2006): “Turtle is a circle / circle is a snail // green circles / orange circles / circle circle square.” Higgins guides readers to engage with the pictures and see how they visually represent the singsong, descriptive words. It’s a whimsical romp; on one page, a series of pink triangles paired with orange circles evokes both rodents and birds (“all of these are triangles / all of these are pink / some of them go / tweet-tweet-tweet / some of them go squeak”). Combined, words and pictures deliver a pleasing, interactive game of a read sure to inspire conversation and laughter from the readers who encounter this picture book. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Will quickly become a read-aloud favorite.