Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews

Elmer's First Counting Book

Elmer's First Counting Book

David McKee
Board book  Series
For ages 1 to 4
Andersen Press USA, 2012   ISBN: 978-0761389996

Elmer the elephant is not only a wonderfully colorful elephant person, but he is also a great friend to have around when you need a little help. In this Elmer-shaped book, young children can join Elmer and his non elephant friends to learn how to count to ten.

We begin, naturally, with Elmer. He is smiling and being his usual cheerful self. I am sorry to say that his appearance makes the two crocodiles on the next page laugh.

Luckily, we can turn the page to get away from the rude crocodiles to watch three tigers dancing under the stars. Being lazy creatures, four lions chose not to join the tigers. Instead they lie around dreaming. Later on, we see seven frogs doing one of the things that they do best: jumping. In the nearby pond eight colorful fish swim about.

This wonderfully colorful book will not only help children to learn how to count, it also will help them to learn the names of several popular species of animals, and they will also become familiar with action words such as dancing, dreaming, swinging, and swimming.