Read, Read, Read, said the Baby: Ten in the Bed: A bouncy bedtime counting book! by Gill Guile

[Originally published in 2014]

This board book illustrates the traditional rhyme with the addition of fun sounds. If you're not familiar with the rhyme, it's a subtraction chant (so it's not really accurate to say it's a counting rhyme). It goes "There were ten in the bed and the little one said 'roll over, roll over!' So they all rolled over and one fell out." Then nine, eight, etc.

This one adds a sound for each stuffed animal that falls out from "oops, crash, ow!" for the giraffe to "oink, oink, oops!" for the pig. The pictures are bright but soft colors, and all the animals are very obviously friendly and comforting bedtime friends. Careful attention to the pictures will show a logical order to the animals falling out of bed, a pattern older children will be delighted to follow, while younger children will be happy with the apparent spontaneity of the animals rolling out.

This book is a stiff cardboard rectangle, 7x9. As you can tell from the picture, its die-cut into shapes with the cover having a large open square to show the inside. The pieces of pages overlap - as you turn each one, they get bigger and bigger, revealing more empty bed, until the final page is full and the animals climb back in. There are ten pages, not counting the endpapers. Despite the oddly shaped pages, it feels very sturdy with thick cardboard and an extra strip down the inside of the right edge of the cover to keep it evenly closed. There are some wrinkles in the cover that hint at possible bending, but nothing too major.

Verdict: This has lots of things to explore - differently shaped edges, pictures of different animals, rhyming text, fun sounds, and the subtracting aspect. While I normally don't buy movable or novelty books for the library, this seems to be quite sturdy and the attractive aspects outweigh the possibly falling apart issues. Recommended.

Revisited: I did end up purchasing this and, in the ensuing years have A. changed my stance on purchasing novelty board books and B. replaced this several times. It's fairly sturdy but nothing that will stand up to the kids in my library. Tiger Tales republished it in 2017 and it's worth purchasing for storytimes or your board book collection as it's a lot of fun. ISBN for new edition 9781680105186

ISBN: 9781589256187; Published 2013 by Tiger Tales; Borrowed from another library in my consortium; Added to my library's order list