Heads

This touch-and-feel companion to Van Fleet's bestselling Tails (2003) is interactive even before page one, with a pull-tab cover in which animals move letters into place to spell out the title. The book is stuffed with myriad textures, detailed watercolor illustrations, and playful rhymes ("Bite mouth,/ Shout mouth,/ Slobber mouth,/ Slurp!/ Nibble mouth,/ Chew mouth,/ Rude mouths... BURP!"); a hippo's mouth opens wide during said burp—just one of a couple of kid-pleasing gross-out moments. All the animals, from axolotl to tamandua, are labeled on the final spread, after a fold-out surprise ending. It's a buoyant celebration of the animal kingdom's diversity. Ages 2–up. (Aug.)