Little baby books: Everyday illustrated by Mel Four

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Bloomsbury, 2017. ISBN 9781408873762
(Ages 0-2) Recommended. Board picture book. Mel Four has very cleverly and simply brought to life 5 commonplace monosyllabic nouns: car, sock, cup, duck and bear for the youngest readers although a child up to the age of 2 would no doubt find it of interest.
The main object of interest is depicted on the left hand side of the page with its word clearly shown in lower case. Very shiny luminous coloured paper is inserted into a black board background highlighting the important parts and giving a different texture and look to the rest of the page. This is quite a contrast to the usual pastel colours of baby books. The right hand side of the page simply outlines other objects a child might associate with the noun in question. For instance we have 'cup' shown clearly on one side of the page with an accompanying meal on the other. 'Sock' seems to have fallen out of its really untidy chest of drawers with other common articles of clothing spilling out all over. I really love the 'duck' page with little gold foil ducks happily standing out against the black as they sail along in their bathtub.
Simple, but very attractive and effective.
Elizabeth Avery

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