Book Description
for Counting Creatures by Julia Donaldson and Sharon King-Chai
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
A counting book that opens showing a bat with one baby features a variety of baby animals as it counts by ones up to ten (two baby lambs, three leopard cubs, four wild dog pups, through ten potbelly piglets) before jumping to 15 turkey poults, 20 caterpillars, 25 tadpoles, and then a multitude of spiderlings. The patterned, brief text engages young children by introducing each animal's number of babies ("This owl has" ...), and a rhyming description ("five owlets / Huddled together, warm in cold weather"). It then asks "Who has more babies than that?" A beautifully elaborate book design uses intricate die-cut, lift-the-flap pages to reveal the babies after introducing each mother. As an added treat, there's a search-and-find feature for readers to go back and track down some of those spiderlings on each double-page spread. (Ages 2-4)
CCBC Choices 2021. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2021. Used with permission.