Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Ocean Counting: Odd Numbers
Illustrator: Shennen Bersani
Nonfiction Picture Book
For ages 5 to 8
Charlesbridge Publishing, 2005 ISBN: 978-0881061505
The world’s oceans are full of creatures of all kinds. Some, like mackerel and perch, have backbones, while others, like crabs, have a hard exoskeleton. Some of the animals don’t have a skeleton at all. Whelks, moon snails, and razor clams all have a shell that protects their soft bodies from predators.
These are just some of the animals that you will meet in this interesting counting book as you count from one to fifty. Jerry Pallota combines interesting facts about marine animals with humor to give young readers a unique counting book experience. In all, he tells us about twenty-seven animals, each one of which is distinctive and perfectly adapted to its environment. For example, the pipefish can swim both vertically and horizontally and they have “teeny-weeny eyeballs.” He explains that horseshoe crabs use their tails to flip themselves right side up if they find themselves on their backs.
This is one of two ocean counting books that Jerry Pallotta has written. Readers who enjoy this book might like to read Underwater Counting: Odd numbers as well.
