Skip to main content

If You Like... Counting Books

When it comes to back-to-school season, ABC books (also called abecedaries) tend to dominate the scene. I get it. If you're starting the school year, you're most likely gearing up to talk about the alphabet and learn about all the different letters. But something almost as fun as letters is numbers. If back to school makes you think about counting 123, then here are some awesome counting books for you!

Written by Caspar Salmon
Illustrated by Matt Hunt
Lincoln, MA: Nosy Crow Inc., 2023. Picture Book.

Do you think that you're so smart? Do you think that you can count all the numbers really high? That's great, but this book only wants you to count to one. We are just mastering counting to one. Of course, you could always try to outsmart the book. But who would want to do that? This is a very fun and goofy interactive book that will have older kids dying to practice their counting -- well past the number one.

By Emily Gravett
London: Boxer Books, Ltd., 2023. Picture Book.

Nine playful kittens, and their one sleeping mama, get caught up in a color-mixing, counting adventure. As mama naps, the mischievous kittens find cans of primary-color paint and the ten kittens are soon covered in red spots, yellow spots, and blue spots. And before long, in green, orange, and purple splats. Light on text, this book effectively teaches counting and color mixing with illustrations that are a delight to study and that are reminiscent of classic children's books.

Written by David LaRochelle
Illustrated by Lian Cho
New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2023. Picture Book.

For readers ready to go a step beyond counting, this hilarious picture book includes subtracting and adding dragons from our 100 dragon total. As we follow our 100 dragons -- all named Broccoli -- on their wild and crazy adventures, made possible by hilarious illustrations, we are also sneakily subtracting and adding to get back to our 100 dragons. Silly but entertaining, perfect to challenge the belief that math is boring.

By Susie Ghahremani
New York: Abrams Appleseed, 2017. Picture Book.

Still ready to go beyond counting 1 to 10? In this unendingly cute picture book, simple text helps us to count and stack a group of adorably cute cats. At first, we're counting as our cats are stacking, until a stack of more than three becomes unstable -- and the cats figure out other ways to count and stack. A darling little counting book, perfect for cat lovers or anyone else.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Stand Tall by Joan Bauer

Stand Tall By Siena Siegel by Joan Bauer Putnam, 2002, 182 pgs Realistic Fiction Tree is 12 years old and over 6 feet tall. That would be great if he were a basketball player, but he is not. Dealing with his unusual size is not Tree's only challenge. Tree's parents have recently gone through a divorce, and his grandfather has had his leg amputated as the result of an old Vietnam War injury. The strength of this book is the characterizations. All of the main characters are dimensional and sympathetic. Bauer sets the characters in real and often funny family situations. Best of all is the character of Tree. He is boy with a heart to match his stature. This is a great book for boys or girls ages 9-12, as a read aloud or for individual reading. This book could also be a good Rx book for children whose families are going through divorce, or for anyone who feels like they don't fit in.

Review: The New Girl

The New Girl By Cassandra Calin New York: Graphix, 2024. Comic. 261 pages. 12-year-old Lia and her family have just moved from Romania to Montreal, and she's doing her best to keep up with the changes. But, she's homesick. She misses the rest of her family, her friends, and her favorite Romanian treats. She doesn't speak French and her English is shaky, which makes it hard to make friends, even in her international immersion class. And she's dealing with super painful menstrual cramps every month. But before long, Lia starts to hit her stride. She befriends the other bilingual girls in her class, she gets a spot as the artist for her school's magazine, and even has a new crush -- Julien. Though she may be the new girl, Lia is starting to fit in. This slice of life graphic novel is an adorable choice for middle grade readers and young teens. Lia is a likable protagonist and readers will have little difficulty relating to her adjustment to school. The text speaks to a...

Review: Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker

  Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker By Heidi Heilig New York: Greenwillow Books, 2025. Fiction. 291 pages. Thanks to Cincinnati Lee's no good, dirty rotten, artifact stealing great great great grandfather, Cincinnati's family is now cursed and Cincinnati feels like it's up to her to break the curse. Which involves trying to steal the artifacts back from museums that her grandfather robbed from graves and archeological sites around the world and return them to their countries of origin. But when Cincinnati's first artifact stealing mission goes awry, she decides it might be more effective to steal an all-powerful artifact herself that she can use to break the curse - The Spear of Destiny. Unfortunately her race for the spear will pit her against art smugglers and thieves intent on finding the ancient artifact themselves. If you are looking for an Indiana Jones read-alike, this is the perfect for you! Heavy on the adventure with similar levels of mysticism to those seen in th...