1 Big Salad: A Delicious Counting Book

1 Big Salad: A Delicious Counting Book
By Juana Medina
Viking, Penguin Young Readers Group, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2016.

In this counting adventure different food items are turned into various animals with bits of extra black lines drawn around and on the photographs of food. For example a half an avocado is turned into an “Avocado Deer” or five tomatoes are turned into “Tomato Turtles.” One of the great things about this book is the fact that each number is both written out and show by its numerical symbol. So children will see that “7” is the same thing as “seven” when looking at the “Radicchio Lions” page. The book finishes with a clever ending of how all these counting bits of food/animals are put together (if you wonder what that could be you should take a look at the title…). As a librarian who loves imaginative counting books and a girl who has always loved a good salad, this book hits two different sweet spots for me. Yay! (And yum!)

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