August 2014: Counting Books (Master List and General Discussion)

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

In August, the Picture Book Club will explore Counting Books.

You may see our official selections and discussion of those five books here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

This present list now becomes our Master List and General Discussion about Counting books.

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

A few to get us started:

1 Is One (because I love Tasha Tudor!)

Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 (we've enjoyed the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom for alphabet and hope this is good, too)

1-2-3 Peas (again, loved the alphabet book and hope this is as good)

Olivia Counts (have enjoyed others in the Olivia pig series)

One Was Johnny: A Counting Book (because Maurice Sendak!)

One White Wishing Stone: A Beach Day Counting Book (I love this book! Please note that it was a selected book for the PBC for a prior year's theme about the seaside but I wanted to include it in this list of counting books)

Ten Little Rabbits (love the illustrator, Sylvia Long)

Museum 123 (this might be good for older kids, those typically "beyond" the counting book phase)

Construction Countdown (because my son loves construction trucks!)

Ten Terrible Dinosaurs (because my son loves dinosaurs!)

Molly's Monsters (the cover is adorable)

Anno's Counting Book (Anno is a classic)

Over in the Ocean: In a Coral Reef (variation on the classic "Over in the Meadow" -- illustrations look amazing! this might also interest older kids)

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

Some I've read already and rated highly:

One Gorilla: A Counting Book (I actually gave this 5 stars, meaning I believe it has appeal far beyond its target audience. Fun, and educational.)

Mother Earth's Counting Book (environmental awareness)

The Icky Bug Counting Book (science)

Also, I would like to read:

Count the Monkeys (humor)

When Sheep Cannot Sleep: The Counting Book (supposed to be more creative, maybe surreal or fantastic?)

Musk Ox Counts (humor)

[Natasha]

Drat! I wish mine was still in print because it's totally fun. You learn the numbers and about frogs. It's called Hippity Hop, Frog on Top. It was my first book ever published so I have a soft spot for it.

[Jenny]

Quilt Counting
On the Launch Pad: A Counting Book about Rockets
One Checkered Flag: A Counting Book About Racing
Counting Kisses: A Kiss & Read Book
Up All Night Counting: A Pop-Up Book
Counting in the Garden
Counting Peas
Under the Sea 1, 2, 3: Counting Ocean Life
3, 2, 1 Go!: A Transportation Countdown
Cha-Cha Chimps
Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives. (Have not read this but it looks like it is not a typical counting book...counting 1,2,3... But connects animals with a variety of numbers and facts about each...says it is geared for ages 4-8)

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed or other books about the 5 monkeys...my kids preferred the monkeys swinging in the tree when they were young.
Build a Burrito: A Counting Book in English and Spanish:
A Nest in Springtime: A Mandarin Chinese-English bilingual book of numbers
Crumbs on the Stairs - Migas En Las Escaleras: A Mystery
Counting Ovejas
Ten Mice for Tet!

Along with the Icky Bug Counting Book that Cheryl nominatedJerry Pallotta has written Underwater Counting, Butterfly Colors and Counting, and Ocean Counting: Odd Numbers.

[Beverly, former Miscellaneous Club host]

One of my newest favorites is One Two That's My Shoe!; I loved the illustrations.
Little Rabbit's First Number Book
1, 2, 3 to the Zoo
Abigail

[Fjóla]

I'd like to suggest (One). It's only a counting book on the surface, while it tackles a a tricky subject in a figurative way, but both me and my kid found it very impactful and I was pleased with the art as well.

Another new book I found incredibly clever was (Count the Monkeys).

I also love the Musk Ox books, they're very funny, and Zero the Hero (sort of a sequel to E-mergency!), although Zero strays a bit from the subject of counting into more advanced things. (And neither of these books is really geared towards preschoolers, but rather school age children.)

Then, I would really like to read Have You Seen My Dragon? but it's not available at my library just yet, so maybe it's not a good choice.

Finally, a few books my son used to check out a lot when he was really little were:
So Many Bunnies (an alphabet book as well, it's really cute and well illustrated, we spent hours with it)
Ten Little Fish by Audrey Wood
Ten Apples Up on Top!
The House of 12 Bunnies (bunnies, yet again!) and
Snappy Little Numbers

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

The Twelve Days of Winter: A School Counting Book
Birdsongs
One Leaf Rides the Wind
A Pod of Orcas: A Seaside Counting Book
The Water Hole
Count Them While You Can . . .: A Book of Endangered Animals (this is excellent)
My Arctic 1, 2, 3
The Fall Gathering: Woodland Adventures
How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?
Over in a River: Flowing Out to the Sea

1, 2, 3 Moose: A Counting Book
The Chicken Problem
It's a Firefly Night
Ten Birds Meet a Monster
Sir Cumference and the Off-the-Charts Dessert
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Pumpkin Countdown
Numeralia
Soup for One
How Many Donkeys?: An Arabic Counting Tale

[Jenny]

We All Went On Safari...a Tanzanian counting book

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

This list looks amazing already! Thanks for the great nominations... and keep 'em comin'! ;-)

[Tricia]

I'll try not to repeat what others have suggested! Here are my few:

Richard Scarry's Best Counting Book Ever

One Big Building: A Counting Book about Construction

The Coin Counting Book

Rainbow Fish Counting

Each Orange Had 8 Slices

Counting Our Way To Maine - I love this book!

I also just bought Count the Monkeys and thought it was very cute.

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

This one looks like a bit of a different type of counting book:

The Rabbit Problem

One of Jane Yolen's dinosaur books:

How Do Dinosaurs Count to Ten?

[Fjóla]

Oh, The Rabbit Problem is absolutely brilliant! We had it a few weeks ago and my kid would read it twice a day for about a fortnight before he granted me permission to return it. But, the concept it seeks to illustrate (the Fibonacci sequence, more precisely) is of course way beyond the scope of counting and may not be easy to grasp for a typical kindergartener. The design of the book is really cool as well, it's set up as a calendar, with plenty of surprises on the pages and clever cut outs.

Another book my son and his class mates liked this year was One Hundred Snowmen. It's a counting book, but then it doesn't stop at just counting from 1 up to 10 and then backwards again, but also adds up all the numbers, and the kids thought that was a very clever gimmick (which I suppose it is, but it wasn't terribly well explained, more like hand waving ...)

[Karen]

Miss Spider's Tea Party


Over in the Meadow

Also loved Richard Scarry's Best Counting Book Ever ...

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Thanks for the great nominations!
It is now time to vote for our August selections. Please choose the five books you would most like to read from our nominations list here (messages 2-14) and post them in a comment below to cast your votes.
Votes will be accepted until July 20th.
Thank you :-)

[Tricia]

Here are my five:

Counting Our Way To Maine

Count the Monkeys

Anno's Counting Book

The Rabbit Problem

Museum 123

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

One Leaf Rides the Wind

Count Them While You Can . . .: A Book of Endangered Animals

A Pod of Orcas: A Seaside Counting Book

Numeralia

How Many Donkeys?: An Arabic Counting Tale

[Jenny]

How Many Donkeys?: An Arabic Counting Tale
One Gorilla
Count Them While You Can . . .: A Book of Endangered Animals
Musk Ox Counts
Museum 123

This was hard to choose. I wasn't originally super excited for this topic because my children and students are past the age where they need/seek out counting books. But there are some great titles on this list! If I have time, there are quite a few that I hope to check out.

[Beverly, former Miscellaneous Club host]

Apple Pie ABC
One Gorilla
Count the Monkeys
1, 2, 3 to the Zoo
Abigail

[Dolly]

My votes:

One Leaf Rides the Wind
Museum 123
Abigail
One Gorilla: A Counting Book (which I've just noticed is different from One Gorilla, so I suppose either is okay)
Sir Cumference and the Off-the-Charts Dessert

Please note: I really wanted to vote for The Rabbit Problem, but I just can't get it at any of my local libraries and I doubt I'll purchase it.

[Fjóla]

One
Count the Monkeys
The Rabbit Problem
Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives
Musk Ox Counts

(I'm also dying to read Have You Seen My Dragon?, but just don't think it's all that available yet. Haven't even spotted it in a book store.)

[Beverly, former Miscellaneous Club host]

@Fjola,
That's odd. Our library system owns copies, which is where I read it. I am surprised it wasn't available in your bookstore.

[Fjóla]

Beverly wrote: "@Fjola,
That's odd. Our library system owns copies, which is where I read it. I am surprised it wasn't available in your bookstore."

I didn't actually look for it, strictly speaking, but I haven't seen it on display. I always take a brief look at the books on display when I have business in a bookstore. But I've only been twice in a bookstore for the past three months, the university bookstore and a Bookstar (which is a subsidiary of B&N). There's unfortunately not even a bookstore in my neighborhood.

I don't expect to see it at the library quite yet, it was only published in April really, I think.

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

The votes are in!

Here are the books we will read together in August:
Count the Monkeys
The Rabbit Problem
Museum 123
How Many Donkeys?: An Arabic Counting Tale
One Gorilla

I have not selected a sixth/alternate book for this month because the votes were too split and I couldn't break the tie as my library did not have most of them. For those of you interested, these are our runners-up (with two votes each) and those of you who voted for these (or any of you interested in them) are welcome to read them and share your thoughts on them, either here or in our Discussion thread:
One Leaf Rides the Wind (I really wanted to read this! Sad my library doesn't have it)
Abigail (this looks soo cute! Ditto)
Musk Ox Counts (the cover art on this didn't appeal to me, but I do like musk-oxen)
Count Them While You Can . . .: A Book of Endangered Animals (good thing I did not have to choose amongst these four!)

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

This list now becomes our Master List and General Discussion about Counting books.

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

A lovely basic counting board book, from one to ten, in three languages, English, French and Cree is Discovering Numbers (the artist, Neepin Auger is Cree herself, the daughter of late Cree artist Dale Auger, and the illustrations mostly feature objects that are of significance to Native Canadians and Americans, but really, this is a book that is a great first introduction to numbers for all children, and it teaches language as well)

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Sounds wonderful! Thanks, Gundula.

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Kathryn wrote: "Sounds wonderful! Thanks, Gundula."

There is an equally wonderful basic alphabet book by the same author/artist, Discovering Words. I highly recommend both for anyone looking for a basic number or alphabet book (that will also expose children to French, Cree and with the illustrations, Native American culture).

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Powwow Counting in Cree

OwnVoices, with lovely pictures and a simple text presenting the Plains Cree numbers from one to ten within the context of a Cree powwow, four stars for both text and artwork, although I do wish that the pronunciation guide appeared both in the text and at the back of the book and that Powwow Counting in Cree would also have an author's note providing information on Cree culture and powwows.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

A counting book, a math book and a book about native New Zealand birds (and written by a Maori author), Fifty-five Feathers is lovely.

(view spoiler)[Yes, Ben Brown and Helen Taylor's 2004 picture book Fifty-five Feathers should work very nicely and successfully for children learning their numbers, with basic (and fun) addition/counting practice of the numbers one to fifty-five (featuring ten endemic to New Zealand bird species). And just to say that I also very much appreciate Brown's no holds barred and sufficiently critical and condemning additional information at the back of Fifty-five Feathers with regard to the early 20th century extinction of the huia and pointing out that many of the native to New Zealand birds featured in Fifty-five feathers are currently (at least for 2004) endangered and sometimes even critically so (due to habitat loss, invasive species, indiscriminate hunting, the feather trade, pollution, large scale farming), although I personally certainly consider it rather academically lacking that Ben Brown does neither bother to include small sections of scientific/zoological details about each of the ten NZ birds nor equally a list of books and websites for further reading (and that this would in my opinion much increase the educational value of Fifty-Five Feathers).

However, while for me (and as already alluded to above) the math practice Ben Brown features in Fifty-five Feathers is wonderfully, engagingly rendered and that Helen Taylor's accompanying illustrations (pukeko, kakapo, kiwi, kotuko, takahe, kea, piwaikaka, kereru, kokako and huia) are a vision of absolute aesthetic loveliness (colourful, realistic, glowingly enchanting) and also as such successfully visually mirror Brown's printed words and in particular the numbers being textually presented, so that for example the number of depicted kakapo (two) equals the digits verbally shown and so on and so on until ten bird species are reached (and that counting the number of birds depicted by Taylor comes to exactly fifty-five, is the number of feathers pukeko needs to make a warm winter cloak for her friend, the gecko, who is is cold in the New Zealand winter and needs warmth), sorry, but the entire premise of a feather cloak for the gecko, this kind of manages to rather rub me the wrong proverbial way (since so many endemic New Zealand birds are endangered due to being hunted for in particular their feathers) and that therefore, the extinct huia being shown in Fifty-five Feathers as leaving the last ten feathers for the gecko's coat (and that each of the featured birds also give up parts of their plumage), this entire scenario really makes me personally feel a bit uncomfortable and I thus do kind of wish that Ben Brown could have thought of another scenario for Fifty-five Feathers and not be featuring a cloak made of bird feathers and in particular of feathers made from endangered New Zealand avian species.

But still four stars for Fifty-five Feathers and definitely recommended, as in my opinion, the combination of text and images is definitely nicely successful for its intended mathematics purpose (and in particular since Ben Brown is Maori and that Fifty-five Feathers should also thus be considered as being Own Voices). But yes indeed, if I were to use Fifty-five Feathers with or for young children, I would certainly be wanting to discuss my personal issues with the author, my reservations with Ben Brown basing the story for Fifty-five Feathers on making a garment out of bird feathers, out of something that has actually and in fact contributed to native New Zealand bird species being hunted and made endangered (and with the huia, of course, extinct for more than a century). (hide spoiler)]

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Nothing spectacular, but a really fun and wonderfully illustrated Halloween themed adaptation of the Over in the Meadow song is Little Goblins Ten.

(view spoiler)[Although there is nothing really all that novel and exciting about Little Goblins Ten (which is basically just a typical Halloween-based picture book adaptation of the traditional Over in the Meadow song), I certainly and smilingly have found the combination of Pamela Jane's adapted lyrics and Jane Manning's accompanying artwork both sweet and engaging, never in my opinion potentially too creepy and frightening, and indeed especially visually providing a fun introduction to all things Halloween for the very young (but of course, if you actually do consider Halloween as a no-no, as something inherently evil and uncanny, Little Goblins Ten should probably be avoided).

And yes, with Little Goblins Ten it is in fact Jane Manning's illustrations that have made me rank this with four stars. For while the author's, while Pamela Jane's verses are basically just a standard adaptation of Over in the Meadow, Jane Manning's pictures are totally and delightfully detailed and full of colour and expressiveness (and not to mention that the pictures of the galavanting baby goblins, witches, skeletons, dragons etc. also provide fun counting practice of the numbers from one to ten). Highly recommended, albeit that yes, I certainly would have enjoyed Little Goblins Ten just a trifle more, if at the back of the book, Patricia Jane had also provided the musical score and perhaps even the original lyrics for Over in the Meadow, as while so very many picture book adaptations of the latter seem to exist, the majority of them sadly do not bother including the original (and I do think that this is somewhat of a shortcoming, as not everyone will automatically know the original lyrics and more to the point, the necessary melody). (hide spoiler)]

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Ecological, counting, math oriented and showing how to raise trees organically, Christmas Farm is delightful.

(view spoiler)[Absolutely and utterly magical (and also while indeed fictional, still patently realistic feeling and sounding) is Mary Lynn Ray's Christmas Farm, the sweet account of how one woman (Wilma) decides to purchase seven hundred and forty four seedling balsam firs to plant and raise as Christmas trees (with the help of her young neighbour friend Parker, who at the beginning of Christmas Farm is but five years of age) and how after ten long years of waiting, of tending their planted trees, five hundred and ninety seven of the original conifers planted still remain and are now mature enough to be harvested and sold as Christmas trees, as naturally grown and raised Christmas trees.

A wonderful marriage of Mary Lynn Ray's intricate but still simple enough narrative and Barry Root's colourful and evocatively descriptive images, Christmas Farm presents both a glowing homage and compliment to not only hard work but also to conservation and natural, pesticide free farming (for even though during the ten years that Wilma and Parker have worked on and with their Christmas trees to be, they might have lost about one hundred and fifty of them to weather, deer, mice etc. they still have almost six hundred of them to sell, and indeed have managed to successfully raise their planted balsam firs from seedlings, and naturally, with conservation in mind, with no pesticides and the like).

And while Christmas Farm is of course and first and foremost a story about tree farming, conservation and indeed and of course, about Christmas and Christmas trees, it is also a very good math and counting tale (not so much for very young children, but for older children, there is ample opportunity to use the numbers presented within the pages of Christmas Farm to practice higher level addition and subtraction of larger numbers). Highly recommended and for me definitely a five star book (and even though Christmas Farm is specifically about Wilma and Parker raising balsam firs as Christmas trees, there is nothing actually all that religious about Christmas Farm and thus this is a book that I for one do consider for all intents and purposes pretty much secular, with the author's note, with Mary Lynn Ray's information on the history of Christmas trees in the USA being like the icing on the cake for me). (hide spoiler)]

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

The Penny Pot

I would have enjoyed learning math in grades one to three a lot more with books like the Penny Pot

(view spoiler)[Stuart J. Murphy's The Penny Pot basically and for all intents and purposes simply but wonderfully features a standard but in my opinion also generally engaging little anecdote of how young Jessie is able to use (and count up) the change left in a so-called penny pot in order to obtain enough cash to get her face painted at the June School Fair (it costs fifty cents, but she only has thirty-nine cents in her pocket and thus she requires eleven cents more). And not only are different types of coins featured and depicted (for basic recognition patterns, pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, all American currency though, as The Penny Pot is printed/published in the USA), but different combinations of said coins are also shown in order to practice actual, mathematical counting (and by extension, of course, also making monetary change).

Now as to Lynne Cravath's accompanying illustrations for The Penny Pot, they are bright and imbued with much lively and humorous fun, a bit too exaggerated and cartoon like for me to completely enjoy them on an aesthetic level, but still and nevertheless a delightful mirror of Stuart J. Murphy’s featured narrative (thus indeed, presenting a rather sweet and engaging marriage of text and image, one that while not spectacular and with a major "wow" factor does in an entertainingly engaging and informative manner teach both basic numeracy and financial literacy).

Recommended for both at home and in-class use (and with the activity suggestions, math games and suggestions for further reading on pages 32/33 being an added and much appreciated bonus, greatly enhancing the already stellar teaching and learning value of The Penny Pot and showing both children and adults that mathematical concepts are indeed not only an important but also a fun and interesting, engaging part of our lives). (hide spoiler)]

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Manybooks wrote: "Ecological, counting, math oriented and showing how to raise trees organically, Christmas Farm is delightful.

Absolutely and utterly magical (and also while indeed fictional, still ..."

This is one of our absolute favorite Christmas books! I'm so glad you added it to this list.

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book

A cute and fun board book that features some Irish folklore creatures and practices the numbers from one to ten (both adding and subtracting), a nice story, although I do not like the attitude of always being silent and that the Banshee (who is basically depicted as a little girl) is always told to be quiet.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

(view spoiler)[Yes, yes, yes and indeed in very many ways, Kyle and Derek Sullivan's 2017 board book Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book is visually and illustratively fun, presents an engaging, delightful and gloriously colourful tool for teaching and practicing both adding the numbers from one to ten and also later subtracting the numbers from ten to one (and with the Sullivan brothers for Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book using a creative assortment of cutely rendered magical Irish creatures/monsters, the banshee of the book title, ghosts, hobgoblins, bog monsters, trolls, fairy warriors, leprechauns as well as some local Irish fishermen and a group of druids alongside of cleverly rollicking and playful rhymes to teach young children their numbers and how to count both forwards and backwards).

And indeed, Derek Sullivan’s (digital) artwork for Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book is cartoony, sweet and he adds sufficient detail to the illustrations without the pictures becoming visually overwhelming for the intended age group, for toddlers from about the age of two to four or five, so that Banshee for example is shown with a cheery disposition, as playful, perpetually excited, and that yes, all of the magical creatures featured in Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book are depicted as being never frightening or creepy looking (and indeed, with the only mildly or potentially uncanny appearing illustrations Sullivan features in Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book in fact being humans and not really the monsters and ghosts, being the Irish fishermen and in particular those nine druids with their large and expressionless eyes, that the Irish folklore creatures of Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book look huggably cuddly and with no physical attributes or features that could in my opinion scare young and/or sensitive children).

But just to point that while I do like the general set-up for Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book and that the combination of Derek Sullivan's fun and colourful pictures and his twin brother Kyle's lively text does tend to make me smile (and is both toddler friendly and also for the most part very nicely numerically educational), there unfortunately are three textual issues I have found with Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book (and that taken together they sufficiently annoy and frustrate me to negatively and lastingly affect potential reading pleasure and thus also my star rating, which has now slipped from an original consideration of four to but three stars).

For one (and yes indeed, this does kind of hugely make me cringe), while I certainly appreciate the idea of Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book teaching young children that there are times for being noisy and times for being quiet, I certainly and hugely chafe at the fact that Banshee is always being told to be quiet, that she is never being told in Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book that it is alright and fine to sometimes be loud and exuberantly boisterous (and considering that Banshee is illustrated and obviously meant to be a little girl, there certainly is a feeling that little girls should be seen and not heard all that much inhabiting the pages of Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book and that this does make me feel rather frustrated and also rather uncomfortable). For two, while the numbers from one to nine in Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book appear nicely linear and straight-forward, counting backwards from ten becomes more than a bit confusing and as such also a trifle annoying (and should definitely be handled by Kyle Sullivan in a more organised and less potentially distracting and confusing manner). Finally, for three (and although not in any manner a huge deal and just something that would be or could be interesting for care givers, for parents, teachers, babysitters etc.) I do wish that at the back of Hush Now, Banshee!: A Not-So-Quiet Counting Book there would be a bit of folkloric information on the druids, banshees, bog monsters etc. provided (and maybe a list of book titles for further reading as well). (hide spoiler)]

[QNPoohBear]

My very favorite is Pride & Prejudice: A BabyLit® Counting Primer
Niece #2 loved it and used it to teach her toys when she played school. I loved it because it simplifies the novel's plot to 10 numbers that tell the story. 1 English village, 2 rich gentlemen... 5 sisters... 10 THOUSAND a year!
The illustrations are super cute too. This is my go-to baby gift for baby girls. (along with other books tailored to family interests). I never got feedback if my cousin's daughter has enjoyed this. I hope she passed it on to the little boy cousins because their mom would love it!

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

It Bears Repeating

Basically a dual language counting book, using numbers and polar bears to showcase the digits one to ten in the North Qikiqtaaluk direct of Inuktitut, OwnVoices (author is Inuk and illustrator Inuit), and with text and images working really nicely together to not only practice counting in North Qikiqtaaluk but to also show a typical polar bear day and typical polar bear behaviour. Recommended.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

How Many Donkeys?: An Arabic Counting Tale


Whether children know a little bit of Arabic or none at all, the extremely repetitive (but also in my opinion totally fun and engaging) nature of How Many Donkeys?: An Arabic Counting Tale should likely have readers and/or listeners be able to count from one to ten in Arabic by the end of the book.

So both textually and equally so visually (as Carol Liddiment's colourful and descriptive artwork for How Many Donkeys?: An Arabic Counting Tale completely and wonderfully mirrors Margaret Read MacDonald and Nadia Jameel Taibah's featured text and vice versa) children should definitely enjoy figuring out why main protagonist Jouha just cannot seem to figure out how many donkeys he has in his caravan. Five stars (as I have hugely enjoyed the text and absolutely adore the added bonus of the educational author's note), but DO NOT if interested try the Kindle edition as it is absolute trash.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...