Walk and See: ABC

Two children—a pale redheaded boy and a girl with brown skin and curly hair—explore nature together in an alphabet book that quietly emphasizes independence and curiosity. Beardshaw makes use of the familiar “A is for...” structure, deviating from the format only once: “X is in eXamine,” she writes as the children peer through magnifying glasses at a spider on the facing page (“W is for web”). Beardshaw’s friendly mixed-media images are awash with details and textures for readers to “eXamine” themselves, and the children’s discoveries—which include a grasshopper and hedgehog amid tall grasses, squirrels leaping among branches, tadpoles in a pond—should leave them ready to do some exploring of their own. Up to age 3. Agent: Heather Richards, Tallbean. (Feb.)