Sing Along With Me: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, by Yu-hsuan Huang

 Huang, Y.-H. (2021). Head, shoulders, knees and toes. Nosy Crow. 

This engineered picture book is a delightfully well illustrated book that unfortunately has little to do with the text inside. The cute, anthropomorphic animals, moveable images, and appealing summer scenes of a day at the pool will be engaging to young audiences, but the pictures and engineered aspects unfortunately have little to do with the classic nursery rhyme of Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, which supplements the drawings on each page. 

The engineered pages are as delightful as the illustrations, allowing users to move the cat’s head on the cover back and forth, have two kittens change into their swimsuit, make the same two kittens with water wings tread water, send a young bear down a waterslide, and have the pair of kittens pop out from behind an adult kitten reading a book. All in all, there are five engineered illustrations in this book, one for each two page spread, plus the cover. While in some engineered books the book itself doesn't hold up for very long, such as book with flaps, pop outs, or pull tabs, the majority of this book's engineered elements appear to be quite sturdy, with more slide elements to move back and forth than pop outs or otherwise structurally weak elements. The back of the book says that it is aimed at 2-5 year olds. I believe it would be an excellent addition to a personal collection or a board book collection at a library.

This board book only has eight pages, making for a very quick read. There are two different narratives involved: that of the song, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, and the pictured narrative of the summers day at the pool. These are two very different narratives, to the extent that they don’t quite go together. I can see young readers enjoying looking at the pictures, and enjoying singing the song and doing the dance separately from reading the book and playing with the engineered elements in the book. 

Beyond the obviously interactive parts of the book, the five engineered elements, there's also a QR code on the back of the book. When scanned with a smartphone, it takes the user to a website where you can play the song, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. Children will doubtlessly enjoy dancing and singing along to the song playing from their parents phone. They may also be curious about the elements of technology mixing with the book. Overall, this book is an adorable if somewhat mixed read that any child is bound to enjoy!