Counting Creatures

by Julia Donaldson, Sharon King-Chai (Illustrator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Stunningly crafted by Sharon King-Chai, Julia Donaldson follows up Animalphabet with a visual, numerical voyage through the animal kingdom. With flaps, die-cuts and expertly designed pages, the earliest of learners and the most seasoned readers will enjoy Donaldson's signature rhymes over and over. Counting Creatures is an admirable addition to any bookshelf and perfect for gift giving.

A gorgeous lift-the-flap counting book that pairs parent animals with their babies, from the bestselling author of Room on the Broom.

From a bat and its pup, to a frog and its twelve tadpoles, young readers will delight in counting each creature's babies and learning unusual scientific names for young animals. With rhyming text, lift-the-flaps and peekaboo holes, and a surprise search-and-find element, this is a read-aloud delight and preschool must-have.

* "Engaging, rewarding, and utterly delightful."—Kirkus, starred review
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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593324530
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	11/24/2020
Pages:	58
Sales rank:	125,640
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	390L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Julia Donaldson is the internationally bestselling author of many popular books for children. Her Smarties Prize-winning modern classic, The Gruffalo, has sold more than 13.5 million copies worldwide, and the Halloween favorite Room on the Broom is a perennial best seller. In addition to children's books, she has written many children's plays and songs and runs regular storytelling workshops. She was the Waterstones Children's Laureate from 2011-2013.

Sharon King-Chai grew up in Australia, and now lives in London. A talented illustrator and designer, she has worked on album covers, book covers, stationery, and six picture books. She has a passion for innovation, and her artwork and clever use of paper cutting encourage readers to think differently about the pages they hold in their hand.

Editorial Reviews

10/19/2020

Donaldson and King-Chai’s animal-themed counting book marches readers through a menagerie of families, including bats, leopards, and potbelly pigs. Featuring flaps for lifting, spreads present animals with their countable young, described in rhythmic language (“This arctic hare has.../ 7 leverets./ Running and jumping./ Little legs thumping”) and ending with the repeated refrain, “Who has more babies than that?” The groups represent numbers one to 10, then jump up by fives all the way to 30, where the final spread invites readers to count a spider parent’s spiderlings, which are scattered throughout the book. King-Chai’s energetic illustrations, shot through with acid yellow, electric blue, and shocking pink, layer textures to depict brush-stroked owl wings, splotchy tadpoles, ink-spot flowers, and spattered horizon lines. Ages 3–5. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Accolades for Julia Donaldson
Waterstones Children's Laureate, 2011-2013
Nestle Smarties Book Prize (The Gruffalo)
Blue Peter Best Book to Read Aloud (The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, The Spiffiest Giant in Town, The Snail and the Whale)
Scottish Children's Book Award (Room on the Broom, What the Ladybird Heard)
Book Trust Early Years Award (The Snail and the Whale)
Children's Book of the Year at the British Book Awards (The Gruffalo's Child)

From the Publisher

★ 2020-12-25
Readers count from one to 10 and then jump from there to 15, 20, and 25 in this picture book featuring creatures in the wild.

Animals and their babies take the stage in this paper-engineered tale that allows young readers to make surprise discoveries. On the first spread, they meet a bat. Lift up the precisely die-cut bat’s wing to see “1 baby / Holding on tight as they fly through the night.” Page turns are propelled by the query that concludes each and every spread: “Who has more babies than that?” Continuing to count upward, readers meet leopard cubs, owlets, fox kits, leverets, caterpillars, and many more animals. Creatively designed flaps and die cuts, as well as pages with nontraditional trims, invite young hands to lift, peek, and search: Lift leaf-shaped flaps to see “8 baby mice”; peek through tree-trunk–shaped die cuts to see a forest with “15 poults”; and turn pages shaped like verdant hills to see “2 lambs.” The rhymes are unfussy, pleasingly rhythmic, and have unfailingly flawless meter (“9 ducklings / Swimming and snacking, / Practicing quacking”). Richly colored illustrations in vivid crimson, sapphire, marble green, and copper hues feature realistic animals in their natural habitats, though most are given sleek, wide, stylized eyes. The final spread throws readers a curveball with “LOTS of spiderlings,” depicted as die-cut holes with eight legs each on the previous page—and, it turns out, many of the pages before that.

Engaging, rewarding, and utterly delightful. (Picture book/novelty. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews