Wiggle!

by Taro Gomi

Overview

It's more than a book—it's a game! Every spread is missing a key element of a featured animal—from an elephant's trunk to a penguin's beak, these creatures are incomplete. And it's up to young readers to help them out! Kids can finish the illustration by wiggling their fingers through suitably placed die-cuts. Children are sure to giggle at the silliness of turning their fingers into elephant trunks and chameleon tongues—and learn a bit about animal features on the way!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452108360
Publisher:	Chronicle Books
Publication date:	07/23/2013
Pages:	16
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 4 Years

About the Author

Taro Gomi has created more than 350 books for readers of all ages. He lives in Japan.

Editorial Reviews

"You can count on interactive play and plenty of giggles as tiny fingers become cat tails and book pages become masks."—Cool Mom Picks

"Delightful."—Cool Mom Picks

"I simply adore this new series."—Coos and Ahhs

From the Publisher

2013-07-17
Like Hervé Tullet's The Game of Finger Worms (2011), Gomi's newest encourages readers to insert a finger through a die-cut hole to animate the characters on the page. Readers' digits become a cat's tail, a rattlesnake's rattle, a chameleon's tongue and more in the Japanese illustrator's recognizably whimsical watercolor cartoons, done in colors both bright and muted. Some of the finger animations work well, like the sea gull wing and the elephant trunk, but others look odd or incomplete, such as the penguin beak and the deer antlers. The text is a simple one-sentence explanation of the animal's actions: "The crocodile flashes his fang." The die-cut holes appear on both the left and right sides of the double-page spread, but only one hole is needed to create the animation effect, making the page layout look unfinished. Companion Hide and Seek is another example of Gomi's visual playfulness. An ever-increasing number of animals and people hide an object or two on their person. On the first double-page spread, two roosters are shown, as the text, with the image of a glove hovering above, reads: "Which rooster hides a glove?" One of the birds has had its comb replaced by the glove. The guessing game continues with three crocodiles, one of which has a toothbrush for teeth, and four raccoons, one of which has a sock instead of a tail. Many of these visual puzzles are delightful, such as birthday candles in place of giraffe horns. Others may be difficult for board-book readers to pick up on, such as a triangular flag in place of a shark's fin. The final spread shows a group of kids, one of which sports a fork and spoon as hair braids. While Gomi is often visually sophisticated, the results here are uneven, with images that will both delight and baffle. (Board book. 2-4)

Kirkus Reviews