Counting Book

[Elizabeth]

Title: Ten Tiny Tickles
Author: Karen Katz
Illustrator: Karen Katz
Genre:Counting Book
Theme(s): Babies, Counting
Opening line/sentence: “Good morning, little baby! It’s time to greet the day.”
Brief Book Summary: The mother of a child is starting her baby’s day with tickling her. She counts up to ten with different places and ways of tickling.

Professional Recommendation/Review #1: Ilene Cooper (Booklist, Jul. 1, 2005 (Vol. 101, No. 21)) The author-illustrator of Counting Kisses (2001) offers another winsome book about babies, which also functions as a counting book: Mother gives "one little tickle on a lovely, sleepy head"; kitty gets into the act, tickling ears; and brother and sister offer "five tapping tickles on a tiny, tender tummy." The little baby even gets seven tickles on her "tush" from Grandma. The numbers appear in words and figures, on their own pages or bordering ebullient two-page spreads. Katz uses a bright, cheerful mix of collage, gouache, and colored pencils to produce artwork that has great visual appeal for the intended audience. Rounded shapes predominate. Even the background objects have curves, and the characters have a soft, huggable look--especially that cute baby.

Professional Recommendation/Review #2: Cherie Ilg Haas (Children's Literature)
It takes a group effort by an entire family playfully tickling a baby until she is completely awake and ready to start the day. Even the cat and dog take a turn at making the baby giggle more and more on this fun morning. The story begins with one tickle from her Mommy, and each page the tickles are increased until she receives ten tickles. Images of smiles delightfully grace the story with tenderness. The layout has a fun design with patterns such as swirls, polka dots, and checkers found throughout. A daisy pattern also appears, and as each number is shown on the page, that number of daisies can be found by it, giving a solid visual to aid readers in counting along. The color scheme is friendly with greens, purples, oranges, and other bright complementary colors dominating the pages. This title is A Count and Read Book.

Response to Two Professional Reviews: This book is a very joyful book with happy colors and smiles on each page. The reviews hit the points on why I picked this book because of it’s ways to help children count and read, as they place the number and the number’s word on each page. Both reviews are exceptional.

Evaluation of Literary Elements: The author and illustrator, Karen Katz does a great job of keeping the theme playful and fun for children to read. She uses a soft tone to keep the book engaging and joyful. She used the baby’s whole family in this story, including pets, to wake the child up and get her ready to start her day.

Consideration of Instructional Application: This book is for young children who are just learning how to count or read. If the child is learning how to count, the reader can have the child say the number while going through the book to keep the child engaged in the learning. This is a perfect “Count to Ten” book.