School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-These amusing and interactive offerings will make fun bedtime stories as well as good guessing games. Illustrations hide an animal or object, and the text gives a few vague clues. The big reveal comes when readers backlight the page (either by using a flashlight or by holding the open book to the light) to "look inside" and see a white-on-black image on the verso. Secrets of Winter depicts a herd of deer hiding behind fir trees, and in Construction Site children will find a bulldozer working within a building foundation. The text offers just enough additional information to provide context and answer simple questions, and there's some further content in the back matter, covering topics such as different construction vehicles. VERDICT While many other books tackle these popular topics in much more detail, the novelty of the shine-a-light feature adds a little extra fun.-Jennifer Wolf, Beaverton City Library, OR © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
This addition to the Shine-a-Light series features hidden woodland animals that readers can see by holding a flashlight to the pages. Brown describes the habitat and animals that live there using a gentle question-and-answer format: "The lake is frozen, but something is moving under the ice. Can you see anything?" When readers turn the page, they see the b&w image that was revealed by shining the light ("Most fish lie near the bottom of the lake. The water is warmer here"). The animal residents include a hare, snails asleep in beds of ivy, and a deer family sheltered by a grove of evergreens. Tee's snowy landscape is rendered in muted, cold tones leavened by the rosy glow of the horizon. The interactive feature is delicately paired with the lightly educational content. Available simultaneously: On the Construction Site. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
