1, 2, 3 BOARD BOOK; WHAT IS IT?

Once there was a squarish book, of simple color photographs of familiar nursery objects, that endured for decades because it was so unequivocally and unsurpassingly a first book. These two squarish, heavy cardboard volumes (with rounded corners, on the side of the opening) are in that line of descent—the more outstanding (and rudimentary) because Hoban plumps a single object in bright primary colors—sock, sneaker, bib—in the middle of each page of What Is It? and the simplest, most natural of multiples—five fingers, four quarters of an orange—on each page of 1, 2, 3. The latter, indeed, begins with a single candle on a birthday cake—this is a book for children at that age—and follows, in a cross-reference to What Is It?, with two sneakers. Many libraries of course steer clear of board books—and there'd be no place to put a pocket except on the back cover. But for display, or for the diversion of visiting tots, it's worth considering—while parents, caretakers, and kin will seize upon the books—especially 1, 2, 3: a looking-and-learning knockout with its red numerals, number-words, and dots-to-count.