Whose Home Is It?

"A snail searches for a proper place to spend the night. In language a cut or two above the elemental tenor of the plotline, the small searcher—dubbed “our hero” or “our little hero”—first approaches a burrow inhabited by a badger who “doesn’t want to share his abode.” He moves on to a nest full of thrush eggs, an anthill that is plainly too crowded, a cave where bats “scream and listen to their echoes,” and several other unsuitable residences…before finally realizing that he’s been carrying a cozy personal “conch” all along. In the woodsy illustrations, multiple flaps cut into the sturdy, rounded-corner pages on every spread lift to reveal other animals in related sorts of holes, nests, and other natural homes. The co-published Whose Track Is It? features similar flaps that lift to reveal creatures including a goat with “skillful” legs, a toad who “walks very carefully and thoughtfully,” and “ungulates” with even-toed (cow) and odd-toed (horse) hooves. They have all left distinctive footprints for a lost roe deer fawn to follow. Nappie-clad naturalists may not have the easiest time with these, but their slightly older sibs will find the content as rewarding as it is challenging. Saldaña renders the animals and settings with appealing simplicity, and Janská’s leading questions add further incentive to pore over them. Familiar premises make the natural history in this Czech import and its companion all the more digestible. (Informational novelty. 6-8)" ―Kirkus Reviews

 "This cute, informative board book with pop-up panels reveals the wilderness homes of varied creatures. In it: a little snail wishes he had a covered space to reside in, but every possibility he encounters is already occupied, from a badger hole that only looks deserted, to a nest he has to strain to reach. The intrepid fellow travels on, dropping facts about animal habitats along the way; he finally meets a turtle, who reminds him that he’s carried home with him all along." —Michelle Anne Schingler, Foreword Reviews 

"This pair of engaging lift-the-flap books both take readers on journeys through the woods. The book about homes features a snail who is looking for the perfect home, not realizing what even the youngest readers will realize right away, that it’s on his back! The book looks at a variety of burrows, nests, holes in trees, tunnels, caves and more. The book about tracks tells the story of a fawn looking for its mother. The book offers a wide variety of tracks to explore. Some are in the forest, others on the shore, and still others on the farm and finally in the mountains. There are a lot of lift-the-flap books on the market. These are something special because they allow little ones to guess the animal before lifting the flap. They also are full of information about the animals written at just the right level for young children. There is so much to explore in each of the books that it’s a real pleasure to open each flap. Perfect for the youngest budding naturalists. Appropriate for ages 2-4." ―Waking Brain Cells