Read, Read, Read said the Baby: My Book of Counting by Britta Teckentrup

I previously reviewed My Book of Opposites and now I have the companion, which features counting.

Each spread is divided into two halves. The first page shows an animal with a label in large, bold letters "Four tall giraffes" then the sentence is finished in smaller type "are racing through the town." Still in the smaller type, there is a question "How many yaks are hanging around?" which refers to the facing page. The first page shows the animals in a vehicle with the numeral on the side. The facing page is sprinkled with the number (four in this case) and sets of four animals, each prefaced with the number 4.

The final page of ten shows one of each previously featured animal riding the bus. The back of the book lists uses for the book "Develops numeracy/Aids language development/Encourages active recall" and the book itself is a sturdy cardboard construction, and a nice rectangle shape. It's big enough for an average storytime, but not oversized.

I love Britta Teckentrup's colorful and easily recognizable illustrations. They're a great match for this book which manages to pack a lot of information in without being cluttered. I especially like the way the text (no author for which is given) is organized so you can use it in different ways with different ages. You can use the simple counting and animal identification, read the whole sentence for more story, and interact with the question and various counting opportunities.

Verdict: I highly recommend both this and My book of Opposites and I look forward to more books in this style being published.

ISBN: 9781589255852; Published 2014 by Little Tiger Press/Tiger Tales; Purchased for the library