DINO'S BUSY BOOK

Turn the textured tabs to follow a blue dinosaur from sunup to bedtime.

Each spread offers a four-line verse that describes the action of Dino and three more cartoon dinosaur pals. The verse doesn’t always trip off the tongue: “Run and chase. / Then eat some lunch. / Tasty leaves! / Crunch, chomp, munch!” Other, mostly predictable rhymes include “day” and “play”; “wash” and “splosh”; “fruit” and “cute”; and “bed” and “head.” Bold, bright colors are layered to create fanciful background scenery and illustrate Dino’s actions. Peach-colored mountains drip with sherbet-hued snow. Each spread includes a colored dot with the instruction: “Feel the tab and find the same pattern on the page.” Initially this seems straightforward. The first padded fabric tab is blue with bumpy teal spots, like Dino’s back. On the second spread, both the first and second tabs are visible, and each can be matched with a pattern on the page. But the second pattern is not included on the third spread, and the fish scales meant to match the shiny silver third tab are tiny—or are readers supposed to be looking at the similarly patterned droplets of water? Though the tabs are tactile, the matching elements to be found in the illustrations are not, so there is nothing to match by “feel.” Toddlers will just grab the glued-in tabs, destroying the book and creating potential choke hazards in the process.

Busy indeed! Board-book readers will tear this book up—but not in a good way.