ONE noisy book, ONE spotted book, TWO counting books

My 7 month old niece is visiting from Virginia this weekend, and of course I have to bring her a book when I see her. Also of course, I left the shopping till last minute, so I've been doing a bit of my own browsing in between helping customers. There are so many wonderful books, but today, I'm leaning toward counting books.

A few days ago, we got in a fantastic little board book called Ten Black Dots. In the context of counting dots, the book explores the multitude of things you might create or imagine from those simple black circles.  One black dot could be a sun or it could be a moon. Four dots could become seeds or radio dials. With seven dots, you could have a spotted snake or some stones. The illustrations are simple but colorful and I love the playfulness of the dots being rearranged into different scenarios.

The Noisy Counting Book is just as playful and a lot more raucous--this is a great read-aloud. One boy, fishing in a pond, finds his nice quiet day becoming less so as a frog and some ducks and fish and, finally, six buzzing mosquitoes each add their noises to the chorus. I think that readers and listeners will have a lot of fun repeating the animal sounds, ending each time with the big frog's "GA-DUNK!"

There are...well, I was going to say "countless," but that seems inappropriate to the subject, so instead I'll say...numerous books about counting, some better than others. These two absolutely fall on the "better" side and are worthy additions to any beginning counter's library.