Animals Are Delicious

Three accordion-style board books expand to showcase food chains on land, underwater, and in the air. Gorgeously composed dioramas present toylike animals against crisp paper backdrops, with birds and leaping predators suspended in midair by string. During the forest chain, a beetle is eaten by a shrew, feeding a skunk, which is eaten by a fox that can’t escape a bobcat. “No one is hungry anymore!” ends the text accompanying each chain (mainly because the players are almost all dead). The reverse of each book highlights other things eaten by the creatures in black-and-white silhouettes. Playful yet matter-of-fact, it’s an excellent introduction to the eat-and-be-eaten realities of life in the wild. Ages 2–4. (May)