Waddle!: A Scanimation Picture Book »

Rufus Butler Seder is the inventor of Lifetiles, glass-tiled murals that appear to come to life when the viewer walks by; he's installed them at the Smithsonian, Sea World, Union Station, and other museums, aquariums, train stations, and ocean liners around the world. He is also the founder of EyeThink, Inc., a company that develops and produces a line of toys and gifts using the technologies he's invented. Mr. Seder lives in Boston.

It's Waddle! And it's in color. And boy, is it irresistible. In the same way that kids can't read Gallop! without wanting to gallop around the room, Waddle!, an animals-in-motion Scanimation book, will inspire prancing, hopping, stomping, and scampering. And did we mention color? Created by the optical genius behind the phenomenal #1 and #2 New York Times bestselling children's books, Gallop! and Swing!, Waddle! adds touches of color to the images and integrates it into the text. That prancing pig is pink, the leaping dolphin is blue, the slithering snake yellow. The Scanimation itself is also more lifelike, as the author continues to refine his patented Scanimation process, resulting in a more fluid, realistic motion. Nothing else compares.

Waddle! teaches color and movement. Its language is a joy, the rhymes inspiring, the animals full of life. And one more thing: Waddle! has a surprise ending. Something else to grab the reader—literally.

Publishers Weekly

On the heels of Gallop! and Swing!, Seder's latest Scanimation ode to movement adds color to its bestselling formula, mostly to good effect. Like the previous books, the simple text poses playful questions (“Can you hop like a frog? flip-flop-floop!”). The level of detail on a few animals (the hopping frog, leaping dolphin and chomping alligator) is striking, but the addition of color also has the effect of reducing the contrast, and thus the detail, in others (notably the pig, hummingbird and bear), whose features are indistinct. Still, readers should find the animations mesmerizing. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)\