OOH LA LA POLKA-DOT BOOTS

Olson-Brown’s joyful jubilee is a tribute to polka-dot footwear. Jaunty verses utilize an assortment of adjectives to describe types of clothing from hats to pants and everything in between. Each two-page spread features a quartet of barefoot children attired in the finery detailed by the accompanying text (“Ugly pants / Pretty pants / Country pants / City pants,” for instance). A flap at the bottom third of the page turns to reveal the concluding refrain (in this case, “A rainbow of polka-dot boots!”) and the children’s tooties now shod in an array of polka-dotted boots. The color-saturated pages depict children in a bevy of inventive outfits. The simplicity and predictability of the text readily lends itself to jolly read-aloud sessions. The bright primary colors of Engel’s acrylic-and–digital collage illustrations are ideally suited for the preschool audience. The novelty of “dressing” the characters in fanciful galoshes adds to the allure. (Picture book. 2-5)