IT'S BUSY DOWN IN THE WOODS TODAY

The denizens of Brown Bear Wood keep busy, from morning to night.

Right away, readers meet the jovial, all-animal cast, learn about their important, specialized jobs, and are invited to play challenging seek-and-find games. Writing in engaging verse that scans well, Piercey introduces each location, from the Honey Pot Library, where librarian Papa Bear reads stories to a host of rapt young animals, to the Woodland Hospital, where Dr. Deer, Nurse Pigeon, and the rest of the medical team gently tend to their patients. The seek-and-find element is a rousing success; kids will have a blast attempting to locate Grandma Toad in the market or the baby mice blowing bubbles on the playground. Ideal for honing visual skills, these puzzles are quite detailed; each is accompanied by a lengthy key listing objects or characters for readers to locate. They may prove more diverting if shared with a group—and perhaps easier, as the items are quite tiny. In any case, this bouncy offering, originally published in the U.K., will keep readers as busy as the characters. Drawn in pencil and colored digitally, the charming woodland scenes call to mind Richard Scarry’s work, particularly the intricate cutaways. A final page includes several job-related questions for readers to ask the adults in their lives: “Where do you work?” “What is a typical day like for you?”

Entertaining, immersive fun.