Big, colorful animals pop out from beneath big, sturdy flaps in this safari for the Snugli set.
There are occasional hints in the rhymes of “nature red in tooth and claw”: “Who’s lying in the yellow grass with peeking, watchful eyes? / It’s Lion who’s about to pounce—to little Snake’s surprise!” Despite this, the art’s sunny colors and smiling animals have a properly buoyant effect. The flaps, which nearly fill each alternating page, lift up, down or sideways to reveal said Lion, a banana-throwing Monkey, a splashing Elephant, a Giraffe and, for a climactic thrill, a “snippy-snappy Crocodile” with upthrust, closing jaws. Though at just five spreads this outing is a short one, the heavy card stock on which it is printed and the simple architecture of the pop-ups ensure reasonable durability (for the volume, if not that snake). Cheep Cheep Pop-Up Fun publishes simultaneously and features a rather less-fraught setting: a barnyard.
Toddlers and young preschoolers will snap this up.
(Pop-up picture book. 3-4)