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Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

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All Hail, Mem Fox!!! She is awesome . . . yet again. Ten Little Fingers . . . is a wonderful pre-school age book. Simple rhymes and easy repetitions make this a perfect read aloud for children in the emergent literacy stage (What is that? you ask. Well, call the library find out.). I have one problem with this book and it has nothing to do with the text. It's the illustration with the line, "There was one little baby who was born on the ice." If he was born on the ice, we assume he is part of the native peoples from the Arctic Circle which is in the northern hemisphere. In the picture with him, is a baby penguin. Penguins are native to the Antarctic, which is in the southern hemisphere. And there are no native peoples there. So, unless this child is on a trip to the zoo, perhaps somewhere in Alaska, these two infants would not be together on the same block of ice. Helen Oxenbury, while I love your illustrations, this is a huge error. Where are your editors?
A worthwhile read, even with the immigrating penguin chick.

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