Walking, talking numbers. Dancing frogs. A wandering group of lost letters. The One and Only 1, 2, 3 Book stars a number 1 with a high opinion of itself, but it must compete for attention in this humorous counting book from artist R. O. Blechman. By the time the pages are brimming with numeric activity and the one and only 1 begins searching for the solo spotlight of a less-crowded space, readers will be clamoring to count down from 10 and start all over again!
This is a funny counting book. 1 is so proud of being number one and has a trophy and is not happy when the other numbers start showing up w/ all their stuff. I had to laugh when a little a wanders onto the page asking if this is the alphabet book. 1 shoos him off, even as 8 joins all the rest w/ 8 chickens. By the time all 10 numbers are on the page, there is a lot going on and I agree with 1 when it states that it's too crowded and runs off to find an empty page. For this reason, it may be hard to share at storytime, but I'd be willing to try because of the humor. 1 is so happy when it's just him and his trophy again...and then "a" wanders back on and when you turn the page, has a whole bunch of his friends with him and asks again "is this the alphabet book?" Ha!
I proposed a Spanish storytime with this book and it was perfect. Written in English with big, fat numbers it was easy to incorporate Spanish counting into the storytime.