Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Peekaboo Pals: Opposites
Illustrator: Gareth Lucas
Novelty Board Book
For ages 3 to 5
Silver Dolphin Books, 2016 ISBN: 978-1626865228
Young children love novelty books. The more novelty features there are in a book - flaps to lift, dials to turn, and pop-ups to explore - the better. In this book amusing and clever illustrations and lift-the-flaps are paired with a simple text to help children learn their opposites. There are flaps to lift on every page, and when children open the flaps they are going to reveal a scene that will often make them smile or laugh.
For example, on the first spread we see some animals in a park. A little bear is climbing up the ladder of a slide, and when we lift the flap we see him slide down. At the bottom he crashes into a sandcastle that another little bear has built. Not far away a gorilla is sitting on a deck chair under an open umbrella and sipping a cool drink. When we lift the flap the umbrella has suddenly closed, trapping the gorilla’s head inside!
Further on in the book we are in a hairdressing salon. A lion, a musk ox, and a zebra are about to have their hair done. The lion is there for a clip but, as we discover when the flap is lifted, he ends up with a bit more than he bargained for. The musk ox has straight hair which is miraculously turned into an extravagant updo that she clearly loves. As for the zebra, well, his request to have “more color in my life” ends up being a bit of a surprise.
In all there are twenty-six flaps in this book and we visit ten locations, which include the hairdresser, the park, a bedroom, a gym, a circus, and a café. The final location will give readers a special surprise and it will bring all the animal characters that we have met together for a grand finale.
