Ten Little Fish

by Audrey Wood, Bruce Wood (Illustrator)

Bestselling author Audrey Wood and artist son Bruce create an undersea counting book that's full of the same vivid imagery and fun story elements that have made their alphabet books so successful! It's an undersea countdown in the newest book by bestselling author Audrey Wood and her dynamic, digital-artist son, Bruce. Follow ten little fish as they swim along a beautiful ocean reef, one by one departing from the school for different reasons, eventually leaving one fellow all alone. What will he do? Along comes another, and that makes two! Soon he becomes a father and she becomes a mother--with ten little children of their own. The rhyming text helps readers go from one to ten and back again, and each illustration pops with all the color and depth of an underwater playground.

Genres: Picture Books, Counting, Childrens, Storytime, Mathematics, Animals, Fiction

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Audrey Wood studied art and drama at the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. She has owned an operated a book and import store, taught chldren's drama and art, and traveled throughout Mexico and Guatemala studying Indian folk art. She now lives in Hawaii with her talented family (husband Don and son Bruce, who have both collaborated with Audrey by illustrating some of her books).

Reviews

[Jessica]

I really enjoyed this book. It was colorful enough for children to stay attentive and rich in educational content. The book counts up to 10 and then counts down from 10 to 0 using colorful fish. As a learning extension I would have students experiment with counting up to 10 using small fish manipulatives. I would fill a container with water and tie string to the fish. The children could pull them away one by one to count down from 10.

[E & E’s Mama]

A cute counting-down book (ten to one ) from the author illustrator team behind The Napping House an other fun picture books.

[Keziah Green]

Author Audrey Wood and Illustrator Bruce Wood (2004). Take a journey with ten colorful fish who swim through a vibrant and colorful tropical reef. For various reasons they begin to leave their pool. One by one they begin to disappear and we are suddenly left with one fish. Along comes another fish, they fall in love, and have a family of ten fish. This book provides life-like illustrations that young readers can interact with and rhyme scheme that helps children anticipate the following number. Not only does it teach the audience numbers 1-10, but the story is a representation of the circle of life. In the end, we are back at ten little fish. Target Audience: 3-5 years old.

[Lindsay]

I used 10 Little Fish as a participation story for a bilingual story time to celebrate Dr. Seuss/fish (the Dr. Seuss tale was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish). The story is brightly illustrated, almost like an animated film Pixar style. The repetitive, rhyming nature of the story helps build narrative skills and phonological awareness. Although the story goes from 10 fish to 1 and then increased back to 10 with the start of a family, I only had the kids help me count from 10 to 1. I clipped back the rest of the story to shorten it for the program.

[Anna Nesterovich]

An unassuming little book. Very bright and colorful and well made, it nevertheless lacks inventiveness in the story and is not perfectly rhymed. Thus, it's certainly not the best book ever, but a good one to read with a toddler several times.

[DeA]

A good counting book that has a surprise at the end. Great for children who can or can't read.

[Widad Ahmad]

"Ten Little Fish" is a picture book written by a female author named Audrey Wood, and illustrated by Bruce Wood. The book talks about ten little fish swimming in a line. The fish gets into many situations. .Each situation the fish face, makes them lose a fish and that means that their total number is getting smaller one at a time. At the end the last fish finds a friend and starts to build another new family in which their family has ten fish. I really like the book and I will recommend it to early childhood education teachers. Also, I will personally use it in my classroom because it teaches the students how to count in an interesting way and teach them about the meaning of family and friends.

[Becky B]

Ten little fish swim around and one by one get distracted from swimming in a line until there's only 1 who soon finds a new friend.

The text of this is in rhyme and the page turns are such that little kids can be prompted to see if they know what number comes next if 1 is taken away from 10 or 9 or so on. The ending has a not so mushy romantic twist for those youngsters who are hopeless little romantics. I know the artwork was revolutionary when this came out, but I find these fish a little disturbing in appearance now making this just a 2.5 for me.

[Cameron Easton]

This is a counting book that takes place under the sea. It follows ten little fish as they swim around the sea, one by one departing for different reasons. This leaves one fish, but he soon finds a second and then they have ten little fish of their own.

I really enjoyed this book. it is great for young readers and the pictures are so pretty.

I would recommend this book to children ages 4-6. it is great for kids who are learning their numbers and how to read.

no diversity

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[Kathrin]

I really like this counting book. Each page is clear with the words and pictures. It directly shows what each one means, and I like how the entire book rhymed. Children typically like fish, and I every page in this novel, had fish on it. The words are easy to read. The pages and the cover of the book is very colorful, which draws children to read it.

[Susan Foster]

I feel kinda ridiculous....but, I didn't get it! I get the counting down business. The fish in love seemed a little weird for the age group. Then: Why don't the mother and father "count this time"?? Wouldn't they need to know how many babies they have so they can keep up with them?

I'm probably reading too much into it. Haha. I'm laughing at myself!

[Dana]

Bruce Wood creates beautiful 3D pictures that make the reader feel they are a part of the undersea scenery. The text being in different colors really adds to the colorfulness of the book, but could prevent a child who is color blind from reading this book. Audrey and Bruce follow the fish through coral and other ocean adventures.

[Cheryl]

Bad science, of course. Art looks 'off' and I wasn't surprised to learn that it's computer generated. I like the idea of counting down instead of up, but some of those fish seem to be meeting unhappy ends... which would be good science, but not a good fit for a fun little kids' book. I expect better of the Woods.

[Alexis Munk]

These illustrations were very strange. It looked like they were a cartoon on tv. This would be a great book to use for math skills as well. I love the colors throughout this book. They are not colors you would typically see in a book.

[Jennifer]

A simple and typical rhyming counting book (10 down to 1 and back up to 2 then a family of fish). This would make a good, but not great, read aloud to the preschoolers. The pictures are the best part.

[Jensen Kniska]

Ten Little Fish is a great for children! The targeted age group would be from toddler to older elementary grades. For the older students, I would have them make their own counting books. This book is a necessary in a school classroom

[Hannah Berenzweig]

Ten Little Fish is a very colorful picturebook consisting primarily of the color blue. This book will most definitely teach younger children to count to the number 10, starting from 10. The basis of the book is counting how many fish are on the page, and the illustrations help with that.

[Twos Bothell]

Read during a Mandarin class with the two year olds, and we counted the fish in Mandarin.

I didn't totally pay attention, but the rhymes sounded fun. Thought it was interesting it mentioned the fish being in love and making a family.... >.< Nothing graphic or inappropriate, it just made me giggle.

[Emily Gingrich]

This is a cute little book that could be used to integrate reading and math. The story goes through addition and subtraction. You could cut out little fish for your students to retell the story with.

[Chantel]

So cute! I love that it counts down, then up for a family. My students not only loved the rhyming, but they loved the ellipsis and were so excited that it had my favorite punctuation mark! (Of all things for 6 year olds to get excited about!)

[Becky]

My kids have all enjoyed this sweet countdown book. They‘ve liked predicting the number that comes next, and the writing overall flows well. The colorful, cartoonish fish are also more eye catching than digital kids’ book art often tends to be.

[Janis Kay]

Did this for storytime and the kids got into it (saying the numbers) after a little encouragement lol

[Bethe]

solid counting down story about fish, rhyming text

[Jc]

What happens when all the fish are gone? A wonderful story for young readers.

[Jamal qamar]

This book is good

[Tami]

Was ok but she wants me to never Goodreads a book again

[Miss Sarah]

Ten little fish are frolicking in the ocean and one by one they leave the group. Cute ending. Preschool and up

[Skye Richard]

Great for learning to count backwards!

[Rook’s Books]

Was not expecting the plot twist from “standard counting book” to “where do babies come from” 😆

[Isabella Fields]

I want to teach Kindergarten, so I would use this book when introducing numbers and I would also use it as a read-aloud that the students would participate in.