The Big Book of Animals of the World

In this large-format board book, a follow-up to The Big Book of Words and Pictures (2012), cartoon animals with deadpan expressions appear in profile against white backgrounds. Across the bottom edge of the pages, Könnecke depicts the regions where the animals live—deserts, savannahs, mountain ranges—which bleed together in a way that hints at the globe’s interconnectedness. Objects within the scenes are also identified (a rice paddy and pagoda offer clues to one spread’s Asian setting) and, somewhat idiosyncratically, anthropomorphic rodents and birds appear throughout the scenes, painting, riding bicycles, and working as lumberjacks. While the unlabeled locations can be ambiguous, and animals that would not normally live in proximity sometimes appear side-by-side (for example, Komodo dragon and emu on an Australasian page), it’s a lightly irreverent world tour and visual dictionary. Ages 1–5. (Sept.)