As featured in Atlanta Parent, The Wall Street Journal, on Book Nerd Mommy, and Celebrate Picture Books
"Undercover abounds in thought-provoking juxtapositions that add intrigue to the simple fun of seeking and finding."—The Wall Street Journal
"A picture-book invitation to look carefully and observe."—Kirkus
"A sleekly designed and cleverly imagined book... Subtle humor combines with impeccable design as Contraire invites readers to consider perception, classification, and form."—Publishers Weekly
"Clever... The striking stencil artwork instantly catches the eye."—Teach Early Years
"There's huge fun to be had in this graphic odd-one-out book."—HuffingtonPost
"Thick luxurious paper and a hardback format give this Phaidon picture book its publisher's signature quality in production. Stencil printed in green and pink, this is a bright game of 'spot the odd one out' for little readers with an eye for style. The sneaky elements are clever and could provoke interesting conversations, too. A book to share."—Book Trust
"I can just see kids spending ages poring over these pages, searching for the odd-one-out-and what fun it would be to read this book in a group setting-and see who can spot it first. Beautiful, clever, fun. A scrumptious visual hunt on stylised steroids."—Kids' Book Review
"Delightful... Young children will giggle when they spot the item that does not belong..."—Atlanta Parent
"Here's a gorgeous picture book that combines fun with flair, and offers children the opportunity to find the odd one out. The limited palette of magenta, lime and brown and the stunning stencil print design will appeal to parents, but kids will laugh uproariously over a turtle hiding amongst hats or an umbrella hoping to pass itself off as an ice-cream."—The Book Chook
"The stylishly presented three colour format with a clutch of things continues on each page, prodding the reader to identify the shapes as well as point out the oddity. Not only will they get used to questioning what is on each page but they will identify the similar objects shown and be able to recognise why one is different."—Read Plus
"Gorgeous."—Los Angeles Times
"I absolutely adore this book."—School Library Journal/Fuse 8 blog
"[A] stylish picture-book puzzler."—The Wall Street Journal
"A book for 3-6 year olds (although adults and older children will take pleasure in its pages too) this wordless book will strengthen visual and categorisation skills and introduce them to the art of disguise."—KidsStyleFile
"A most original and aesthetically pleasing picture book... Children will love the humour lighting up many of the spreads... As well as being hugely entertaining, the book helps children see how objects are categorised and encourages them to ignore colour and focus on the shape of objects to identify the odd one out. The book is large and robust enough to survive well in a nursery or Reception classroom. It will lead to a lot of lively discussion and some children might like to create their own 'odd one out' page to share with others."—The School Librarian
2016-07-26
A picture-book invitation to look carefully and observe.While some readers may be familiar with the Sesame Street song “One of these things is not like the others,” this French import’s subtitle first invites consideration of the similarities among objects before determining which one is “undercover.” The cover image showing a turtle among a group of hats highlights the limited color palette of brown, bright pink, and green against a white background. The forms are bold stenciled shapes and colors, and the turtle is about the same size as the hats. The turtle’s shell upon its body visually evokes the idea of a hat resting upon someone’s head, and yet it is a living creature, while the hats are articles of clothing. The solitary snail on the title page suggests a slowness that will reward careful looking. Ensuing juxtapositions depict similarities in form, size, color, and sometimes function or other times biological classification from one spread to the next, with, usually, four images in three straight rows on each double-page spread. One spread depicting structures may give some readers pause, as it includes such structures as a tepee, an office building, a factory with smokestacks, an igloo, and a simple cape-style house. These aren’t all dwellings, nor are they all permanent structures, and the “undercover” item is a confusingly indeterminate two-tiered object with a flame (or is it a cherry?) on top. Slow down and look! (Picture book. 3-6)
