This Is Still Not a Book

PreS-K–With eye-catching colors, bold black lines, and cartoon-style characters in skin tones ranging from deep brown to peach, Jullien riffs on his This is Not a Book for another wordless transformation of the board book. Some concepts will be available to the typical age group: a toilet with a lid, a suitcase that closes, a mousetrap that snaps shut. Others aim much older: a mouth chewing popcorn, a foldable shirt, surfers catching a wave. And some, like the three-dimensional elephant, are sure hits if the reader manages to figure out how they work. The spread of a flip phone with a green-screen game on it may be a nod to parent-aged onlookers, though toddlers will miss the point. It’s a toy, it’s a puzzle, it’s a joke, but without a visual narrative thread connecting one piece to the next, it is definitely still not a book.