1-2-3 Count With Me

This week, I'm sharing some great picture books focusing on numbers and counting for kids . . . .

Let's Count Goats! by Mem Fox
Encourages counting skills with humorous illustrations of goats.

Night Light by Nicholas Blechman
Count the lights and, through die-cut pages, find out which vehicle they belong to.

My Little Sister Ate One Hare by Bill Grossman
Little sister has no problem eating one hare, two snakes, and three ants, but when she gets to ten peas, she throws up quite a mess.

Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Ten mice outsmart a hungry snake.

Count the Monkeys by Mac Barnett
The reader is invited to count the animals that have frightened the monkeys off the pages.


More Counting Picture Books --
1 Zany Zoo by Lori Degman
100 Snowmen by Jen Arena
Can You Count Ten Toes? Count to 10 in 10 Different Languages by Lezlie Evans
Cha-Cha Chimps by Julia Durango
Count on the Subway by Paul Du Bois Jacobs
Counting Crows by Kathi Appelt
Dinosaur Countdown by Nicholas Oldland
Edible Numbers by Jennifer Bass
Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree by Eileen Christelow
Flight 1-2-3 by Maria van Lieshout
Lyle Walks the Dog: A Counting Book by Bernard Waber
Numbers Everywhere by Elliott Kaufman
Old MacDonald in the City by Suzanne Williams
One Family by George Shannon
One Is a Mouse by Jonathan Hunt
One Two That's My Shoe! by Alison Murray
The Right Number of Elephants by Jeff Sheppard
Shout! Shout It Out! by Denise Fleming
Soup for One by Ethan Long
Ten Little Fingers, Two Small Hands by Kristy Dempsey
Ten Seeds by Ruth Brown
Ten Tiny Tickles by Karen Katz
Warthogs in the Kitchen by Pamela Duncan Edwards
When Sheep Sleep by Laura Numeroff
Wombat Walkabout by Carol Diggory Shields
Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss

1, 2, 3, Count With Me

One skill that preschoolers take a lot of pride in is being able to count.  They love to tell others how high they count -- ten, twenty, fifty, hundred, etc.  This week, I'm going to share some counting books . . .

1 2 3 by Simon Basher
Presents the numbers one through twenty alongside colorful images of animals corresponding to each number.

I Spy Under the Sea by Edward Gibbs
Prompts children to look through spy holes and use clues to guess the underwater creatures, and encourages readers to count the animals.

Mother Goose on the Loose by Leo Dillon
Presents an illustrated collection of twenty-four counting rhymes, from "Baa, baa black sheep" to "Wash the dishes, wipe the dishes."

One Rainy Day by Valeri Gorbachev
A pig and various other animals crowd under a tree to escape the rain.

Turtle Splash! Countdown at the Pond by Cathryn Falwell
As they are startled by the activities of other nearby creatures, the number of turtles on a log in a pond decreases from ten to one.

More Counting Books --
Arctic Fives Arrive by Elinor Pinczes
Cha Cha Chimps by Julia Durango
Double the Ducks by Stuart Murphy
Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree by Eileen Christelow
The House in the Meadow by Shutta Crum
One Little Chicken: A Counting Book by David Elliott
The Rabbit Problem by Emily Gravett
Ten Go Tango by Arthur Dorros
Ten Little Hot Dogs by John Himmelman
Wombat Walkabout by Carol Diggory Shields

1, 2, 3, 4, I Want to Read Some More: Counting Books

I often get asked for counting books by parents who are looking to help their children learn their numbers.  Here are my top five favorite counting books right now . . .

1-2-3 Peas by Keith Baker
Busy little peas engage in their favorite activities as they introduce the numbers from one to 100.

Cat Up a Tree by John Hassett
With rapidly increasing numbers of cats stuck in her tree, Nana Quimby asks for help from the firehouse, the police, the pet shop, the zoo, the library, and even city hall, but no one will help rescue the cats.


Zero the Hero by Joan Holub
Zero believes that he is a hero, but the counting numbers think he is worthless until they get into trouble with some Roman numerals, and only Zero can help.

Two at the Zoo by Danna Smith
A grandfather and grandchild go to the zoo, where they count animals from one to ten.

Cat Count by Betsy Lewin
A child adds up the cats owned by ten different people and discovers that it is a lot of cats.

1, 2, 3, Read to Me: Counting Books for Young Children

One of the more popular requests we get at the Children's Desk is for counting books.  Here are some of my favorites . . .

Let's Count Goats by Mem Fox
Encourages counting skills with humorous illustrations of goats.

Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Ten mice outsmart a hungry snake.

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin
Pete the cat loves the buttons on his shirt so much that he makes up a song about them, and even as the buttons pop off, one by one, he still finds a reason to sing.

The Right Number of Elephants by Jeff Sheppard
A counting book in which a little girl relies on the help of some eager elephants.

Soup for One by Ethan Long
A little fly who anticipates enjoying a big bowl of hot soup is unexpectedly joined by a sequence of interlopers who help themselves to his lunch one by one until their number reaches ten.

Ten Terrible Dinosaurs by Paul Stickland
One by one, ten dinosaurs at play become fewer and fewer as various things happen to them.

Count the Monkeys by Mac Barnett

Hey kids! Time to count the monkeys!

It's fun.  It's easy.  All you have to do is turn the page . . .

and

COUNT THE MONKEYS!

And so starts a counting adventure.  And one of my new favorite counting books. 
Each turn of the page introduces an ever-increasing number of animals or people who have chased away the monkeys.  Children are asked to participate in the reading by scaring away the animals, closing their eyes, or humming a happy tune.

A definite must-read for any child learning, or reviewing, their numbers!