Night and Day: A Book of Eye-Catching Opposites

Published last year in France as Faut Pas Confondre, this unusual, often witty paper-over-board book--with one effusive script word per spread--uses die-cut holes to establish pairs of antonyms. In a typical sequence, ""order"" is represented by neat rows of shapes, including yellow circles, one of which is formed by a peephole; in the next spread, explaining ""disorder,"" the yellow circle is still in its place, but the other shapes are strewn about. The shell of a snail climbing uphill in ""slow"" becomes the wheel of a car racing downhill for ""fast""; in a more problematic pairing, red ""pills"" turn into red ""candy."" The jaunty artwork uses thick brushwork and just a few colors per spread to conjure its simple subjects: shapes, arrows, cartoon people rendered with the merest flourish of lines. This concept book has a playful, careless, intelligent quality that makes it amusing browsing for innocents and sophisticates, young and old, little and big.... All ages. (Sept.)