Dressed in his finest circus jacket, a jolly jaguar juggles. A kind kangaroo mother and her kid cuddle as they fly their kites. A light-on-her-feet lamb dances among the autumn leaves. A moon-faced monkey is surprised to see another monkey in the mirror.

But it’s not what we see in these squares that really matters. It’s what your child sees as he or she begins the process of reading. The learning process goes from pictures to letters to matching words to pictures and then to the joy of reading...of being able to visualize what isn’t depicted on the page through the beauty of the written word.

And so we leave our animal poster as the newt plays nimbly with her necklace, the octopus organizes his oranges, the perky pig parades with her new red purse...