In this retelling of a traditional Middle Eastern folktale, silly Jouha can not understand why every time he sits on his donkey and counts the donkeys behind that are carting his figs to market, he loses one, making him a most unlucky man! But no worries—each time he is instructed to dismount, he is able to count all of the donkeys he sees, and all ten are there, making him quite a lucky fellow. Liddiment’s warm, sunlit illustrations show the lovable fool making his way through the desert landscape and finding help from passersby, all the while accompanied by the numbers one to ten in Arabic and English transliteration, which periodically appear at the bottom of the pages. Young readers will giggle along as they familiarize themselves with cardinal numbers in both languages and spot Jouha’s grievous but comic errors. An initial note explains that, as in Arabic, the numbers appear from right to left, and provides source notes and pronunciations. Engaging and filled with gentle humor—a solid choice for home or school use. (Picture book/folktale. 3-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8075-3424-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
This charming, colorful counting tale of ten little fish runs full-circle. Although the light verse opens and closes with ten fish swimming in a line, page-by-page the line grows shorter as the number of fish diminishes one-by-one. One fish dives down, one gets lost, one hides, and another takes a nap until a single fish remains. Then along comes another fish to form a couple and suddenly a new family of little fish emerges to begin all over. Slick, digitally-created images of brilliant marine flora and fauna give an illusion of underwater depth and silence enhancing the verse’s numerical and theatrical progression. The holistic story bubbles with life’s endless cycle. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-439-63569-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2004
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts.
A playful counting book also acts as a celebration of family and human diversity.
Shannon’s text is delivered in spare, rhythmic, lilting verse that begins with one and counts up to 10 as it presents different groupings of things and people in individual families, always emphasizing the unitary nature of each combination. “One is six. One line of laundry. One butterfly’s legs. One family.” Gomez’s richly colored pictures clarify and expand on all that the text lists: For “six,” a picture showing six members of a multigenerational family of color includes a line of laundry with six items hanging from it outside of their windows, as well as the painting of a six-legged butterfly that a child in the family is creating. While text never directs the art to depict diverse individuals and family constellations, Gomez does just this in her illustrations. Interracial families are included, as are depictions of men with their arms around each other, and a Sikh man wearing a turban. This inclusive spirit supports the text’s culminating assertion that “One is one and everyone. One earth. One world. One family.”
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-30003-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
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