B IS FOR BOX

First seen in The Happy Little Yellow Box (2011), the title character returns to demonstrate alliteration in this alphabetical outing.

The smiling box is the only bit of color (aside from red directional arrows) in an A-to-Z progression that is otherwise all simple white lines in solid black fields. This makes it easy to spot, whether it’s hiding in a pull-up clump of “gracefully growing grass,” acting as the “exciting surprise” beneath an “egg”-shaped flap or taking a “joyful jump” at the end of a pull tab. A few exceptions aside, though—notably a dramatic final “Zoom” from behind a cloud—this is a lackadaisical effort that offers just five pop-ups; fully 15 letters come with no movable effect at all, not even a flap. Moreover, with the surreal exception of “P is for puffy planet,” most of the exemplars are commonplace (“A is for apple and five ants”). “Q” is for a “quiet mouse”; “X” is for an “exercising X” (pull the tab, and it touches its toes—but it’s all too easy to lose that tab under the page with use).

F is for flop.