Children's Book Review: The "What Is That?" Series by Moonstone

When five books arrived together as a series for review, my son, who has strong opinions about everything that lands in our home for the books section, took one look at them and immediately said, "These are not for me; these are for the babies." He was right, and he said it with the kind of affectionate authority that older children reserve for things they have quietly outgrown but still remember with great fondness. The What Is That? series by Moonstone, Rupa Publications' children's imprint, warmly caters to children aged one to four, addressing their developmental needs with impressive clarity.

The series arrives as a set of five books covering five of the first things a very young child begins to make sense of in the world around them: animals, numbers, colours, vehicles, and weather. Each title asks a simple, direct question on its cover: What Animal Is That? What Number Is That? What Colour Is That? What Vehicle Is That? and What's the Weather Today? and the books then answer those questions with the kind of joyful, unhurried confidence that only the best early learning books manage to carry off without feeling like a classroom exercise.

The first thing you notice, before opening a single page, is how beautifully these books are made. The pages are thick, sturdy board, the kind that survives the enthusiastic handling of a one-year-old without buckling, tearing, or losing its shape after the fifth reading of the day. Better still, the pages are laminated, which means that the inevitable encounters with sticky fingers, spilled drinks, and the occasional enthusiastic crayon are not the end of the world. Parents of young children recognize the value of durable books, as those that withstand early childhood reading are more likely to be enjoyed and fulfill their purpose.

The illustrations are where the series truly earns its place in a young child's library, and they are everything a book for this age group should be: bright, bold, clear, and full of the kind of cheerful energy that makes a small child want to point and name and point again. Every image is drawn with a warmth that feels genuinely affectionate toward its young audience, and the colors are rich and saturated without being overwhelming, chosen with the understanding that very young children are drawn to vivid, clear visual information rather than the subtle and the nuanced. My artistic son praised the clean and happy drawings after reviewing several titles.

The learning built into each book is exactly right for the age group. Everything is unhurried, uncluttered, and tailored to what a young child can reasonably absorb at once. Animals, numbers, colours, vehicles, and weather are not arbitrary choices. They are the five categories of knowledge that a child between one and four encounters and asks questions about every single day, which means that these books do not sit apart from a child's world but sit right inside it, giving language and image to things the child is already noticing and already curious about.

What Moonstone has produced here is a series that takes its young readers seriously, that invests in beautiful production, thoughtful illustration, and genuinely age-appropriate learning, and that will be reached for again and again precisely because it is so pleasurable to hold, to open, and to read aloud. For parents seeking well-made, well-conceived early learning books, this series is easy to recommend.

Available on Amazon and at rupapublications.co.in