JUST LOOK

Peep through a die-cut hole. Turn the page. What readers see may not be what they expected. Turn the page again. The object they spied awaits them on the other side, placed in a larger context. Hoban (Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?, 1995, etc.) uses simple tricks that force readers to adjust and readjust their views: What looks like leaf veins turns out to be a rabbit's ear, on one white rabbit in a group, while a star pattern becomes stripes on a melon. Among the full-color subjects photographed are familiar objects from a child's world (a toy boat) and nature (rabbits, giraffes), as well as less-familiar scenes (the Eiffel Tower). This lacks the narrative hook of a work like Istvan Banyai's Zoom (1995); it repeats the successful format of other Hoban titles (Look! Look! Look!, 1988; Take Another Look, 1981) without enlarging on or varying it. (Picture book/nonfiction. 3+)