A BOARD BOOK Beauty That IS NEVER BORING

 Board books are a specific and appealing format of picture books. Parents, teachers, and librarians will confirm that they are among the favorites for the earliest of independent tots. But they also require some particular qualities to survive their intended audiences in order to be worth the investment. As we all know, the youngest among us tend to flap hands and arms, bang things, and even toss items they love. Those may sound like tantrum behaviors, but they're nothing like the "throw a fit" behavior we witness all too often even among adults. What observers of little ones will note is that the degree of excitement and enthusiasm they feel is expressed in direct proportion to body responses, from bounces to bangs to giggles to chewing. 

All of those spontaneous reactions can be mighty tough on a book.That accounts for the pricing on some of the best of the board books, designed and constructed to survive such tough love! That includes durable covering, expensive but solid binding, wipeable covers, and sturdy interior paper or cardboard stock. If you add in delightful features like lift-the-flaps with inner flap text and tabs, each little copy is its own work of art. 

PHAIDON Press, 2025

All of the above are among the reasons I am such a fan of the recent nonfiction board book, THE SECRET POWERS OF ANIMALS, written by Soledad Romero Marino and illustrated by Sonia Pulido. A recent post featured earlier this month, SUPER POWERED PLANTS is the work of this well-suited creative pair. They both know their target audiences, shaping the design, text, and level of details perfectly for those older readers, but shifting to the crisp, uncluttered wording and visuals for this young board book crowd. 

The main text is rhymed, usually six lines, innkid-friendly language. That's followed by a question that prompts engagement, prediction, and observation. Each creature image has three lift-the-flaps that share a sentence or two about ways the particular creature has adapted and survives. The animals range from insects to land, water, and air inhabitants. They are familiar (from bees to house cats) and novel (octopus and narwhale). In each case the text page is framed/bordered by stylized elements of the habitat, but the animals are displayed on simple-solid color backgrounds that encourage attention to the details of each creature.

Interior: THE SECRET POWERS OF ANIMALS

As I mentioned above, board books are delightful for littles hands, and worth the purchase. If a book becomes read/loved beyond recognition, it might even merit replacement for the same child, next sibling, or succeeding class or group. In this case, the US price listed for the book is $14.95, a surprisingly reasonable cost for a book of this quality. It has excellent language, informational content, interactivity, visual appeal, durability, and charm. Little ones ih laps or on their own can engage with high level thinking, comparing body parts, colors, sizes and shapes, and more. If you know of anyone ion this target range, make yourself a hero and treat them to this fun new board book. 

Interior: THE SECRET POWERS OF ANIMALS

Phaidon Press provided a physical copy without promise of a review. I rarely comment on books for this age and format unless I can examine the durability and construction directly, and I was delighted by this book! It is a great choice for the smallest tots, but will be enjoyed and examined closely by preschools and even early readers. 

HELLO, SPRING: Explore Super Plants and Tiny Champions!

 If you happen to live in a part of the country that experiences four seasons, especially here in the northern hemisphere with spring peeking around the corner with more sunshine and enticing bright afternoons, these two nonfiction picture books will be especially welcome on wish lists and library holds. Both invite fresh and awe-inspiring looks at the plants and animals of our world that deserve to be showcased and studied. 

PHAIDON, 2025

Let's begin with SUPER POWERED PLANTS: Meet the Smartest, Strongest, and Sneakiest Plants,  written by Soledad Romero Mariño and illustrated by Sonia Pulido. This is one of several releases by a publisher with a well-earned reputation for offering young readers appealing resources to learn more about the world.  

In this case the plants featured reside in habitats around the world, and are distinctly super-powered in multiple ways. The result is a collection of double-page spreads that are similarly organized but produce some jaw-dropping content through a blend of well-written text and symbols/icons that reveal particular adaptive patterns to support long-term survival. 

Illustrator Pulido has a crisp, colorful style that lends appeal and draws attention to each element of a plant, making the complex content accessible and easily comparable to other plants. 

End papers provide an array of the symbolic circles used throughout to tag the traits (each of which is explained on an opening spread) The graphic design of the overall presentation invites reading about one after the next, but also makes this an effective research source. It encourages readers to use the patterns of resource texts (table of contents, tagged details, scientific analysis insertions in smaller print) and the vivid, accurately depicted aspects of each plant in scientific illustrations worthy of framing.

Interior/endpapers, array of icons. Phaeton, 2025

The "super" elements of each plant, in various combinations, range from specialization of the bark, to longevity, to super-flower traits, to sensitivity/reactivity, and more. The compact and readable text explains how such advantages serve the particular plant species and combine with the other super qualities to make the plants exceptional. It's intriguing and exciting to read about, some examples being familiar to a degree and others being new introductions to various readers. Allowing for surviving (and thriving) across the globe and in wide-ranging biomes (deserts to rain forests to water homes), these highly specialized plant lead readers on a virtual tour of the world and invite them to find and learn more about extra special, super-powered plants!

Nature's Tiny Champions, Phaidon, 2025

NATURE'S TINY CHAMPIONS: The Big Book of Little Creatures Doing Mighty Things is written by Ben Lerwill and illustrated by Nic Jones. This nonfiction celebration and revelation of some of Earth's tiniest creatures is super-sized to allow for shared experiences with the exciting content. Each creature presented is showcased at actual size (with measurements, such as the 0.04 inch waterbear, about as small as the period at the end of sentence), with an expanded and detailed view of the critter beneath that "actual size" image, when needed. The images provide clear understanding of each animal and its interaction with nature, as well as a side-border offering circular illustration insets and brief text to learn even more. 

In selecting the creatures to celebrate, the choices showcase familiar animals like honeybees, but layer in facts that are likely new to the reader. Other choices are creatures that young and old are less likely to have heard of before. All in all, this oversized, well-organized compendium of small creatures with big impacts on the earth provides vibrant and informative visuals with intriguing and beguiling information. They make a delightful pair of titles for gifting, and will enhance any classroom, library, or home collection. 

Phaidon Press, Inc has produced other nonfiction books I've throughly admired and written about HERE and  HERE,  From Bansky to Board Books to Bees, each topic is presented in kid-friendly ways that don't talk-down to children but instead engage their interest and entice further explorations. 

Featuring Fabulous NonFiction Titles from PHAIDON

Publishers sometimes offer an early view of new titles. When a publisher has produced reliably terrific titles in the past, my hopes are high. That's the case with four new offerings from PHAIDON PRESS (and Phaidon Kids) whose books I've reviewed HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. In each case the subject matter of those books was an iconic visual artist, from BANKSY to  dot-maestra Yayoi Kusama and more. Theirs are not the only picture books I've featured whose subjects are artists or art itself. But they especially impressed me with the ways in which they produced kid-friendly narrative, images, format, and quality that brought "high art" and artists' lives into the hands and hearts of the very young.

The list of new titles, though, is not about art and artists. Rather, they reflect a group of books focused on various aspects of our observable world. I explored those files eagerly and found them to be well-produced, with contents offering significant kid-appeal. I provide only a brief look at each below, but each merits your close examination. All provide the high quality production values of format, paper finish, vibrant colors and crisp images I've come to expect, with well-organized and appealing content organization. Each though, is quite distinct from the others.

PHAIDON PRESS, 2025

Up first is Superpowered Plants:Meet the Smartest, Strongest, and Sneakiest Plants is written by Soledad Romero Mariño and illustrated by Sonia Pulido. The introduction presents the premise that plant adaptations have made many "super" in their capacity to not only survive but thrive in wide-ranging conditions. Such an academic concept comes to life through vivid illustrations and page design throughout, which is better shown than explained (below). The choice of plants ranges around the world, and the traits/adaptaions featured rarely overlap, making each plant a new adventure to explore. Young readers (and their adults) will recognize many of these and become acquainted with some entirely new plant varieties. I expect many audiences may be eager for a trip to a local botanical gardens after adding this book, and will also be drawn to examine plants right outside their doors with new insights and attention. It's a bright and appealing offering.

Interior images, SUPER PLANTS, PHAIDON

Interior images, SUPER PLANTS, PHAIDON

 

From Baobab trees to prickly pairs to Titan Arum (the corpse plant) and more, you can see in the samples pages pictured above that key elements are 

highlig

PHAIDON PRESS, 2025

hted not only in text but with effective graphic design. The overall format includes a full text introduction, a colorful table of contents, and end pages that array the icon-emoji style circle images that occur throughout each spread and featured plant. Overall, kids will have fun and learn loads about individual plants, while gaining understanding of the processes of adaptation.

Next up is NATURE'S TINY CHAMPIONS: The Big Book of Little Creatures Doing Mighty Things, written by Ben Lerwill, illustrated by Nic Jones. Ranging from the familiar (honeybees and dung beetles) to eye-opening surprises (chocolate midge and water bear), each double spread is a well-designed presentation of visually informative and intriguing images with narrative and spot text, labels, and inserts that provide further information to be accessed at first reading or dipped into on re-reads of investigations later.

Again, the quality of design and content offers something for any age, but kids will pore over and tell others about their discoveries.

Interior spreads, NATURE'S TINY CREATURES, PHAIDON 2025

PHAIDON PRESS, 2025

A third upcoming title is about adaptations of another of Earth's natural inhabitants, humans! GET DRESSED! A historical Guessing Game For Fashion Lovers is written by Katy Canales and illustrated by Erin Vanessa. In this title each set of  spreads reveals a time period and locale in society (notably including global cultures). As in the books above, m the information is transmitted through a rich blend and balance of text (naraative, spot, and captioned) with illustrations (full scenes, insets, and icons/symbols). 

The patterns of each culture allow readers to extend individual elements of society and its roles across time and geography, revealing the universality of humanity. 

Interior Images, GET DRESSED! PHAIDON

None of these new titles is locked into a single structure or format, but al have been designed to suit the material and capture the audience effectively. These are not simple encyclopedic displays, but tell big-picture stories about how patterns of nature (including human nature) can be inferred and sometimes directly observed by those who take the time to slow down, notice, compare, and consider closely. I hope you'll do the same with these exciting new nonfiction picture books.