Are the Clothes Clean?; What's in the Fridge?

Paper engineering in novelty books has to do more than impress: it needs to serve a purpose. These two books blur the boundaries between toy and book and have enormous appeal for the under fives. Are the Clothes Clean? allows children to select cut-out cardboard clothes for washing and then to turn a wheel to see them whizzing round in the ‘washing machine’. Then, the clean clothes can be returned to the appropriate person. In What’s in the Fridge? cut-out items can be taken in and out of the ‘fridge’ and given to the right person in the story.

The books and cut-outs are robustly made and would stand up to regular enthusiastic use by young children. Manipulation of the doors and drawers will help with hand-eye co-ordination and as the children play the game there is an opportunity to learn about shape, colour and different kinds of clothing and food. There is a lot of potential for naming and talking about the objects. Above all these books are a good example of the kind of material that helps children learn to concentrate and become absorbed in manipulative play. (Not suitable until after 36 months because of small parts.)