Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
One Spotted Giraffe
Novelty Book
For ages 3 to 5
Candlewick, 2012 ISBN: 978-0763661571
Many authors and illustrators have found creative ways to help young children learn their numbers. Some have created clever rhymes, while others have used memorable artwork to help children to remember their one, two, threes.
Petr Horacek has created a unique counting book that has a pop-up on every spread, and he uses popular animal species to be his teachers. He begins with “One spotted giraffe,” who looks out of the page at us, it’s long blue tongue slurping. To the left of the picture is a fold out page showing the number one, and when the page is opened, we see a pop-up giraffe and the word “one.” This giraffe picture looks very much like the number one.
The author then goes on to show us two zebras, three cheetahs, “Four slithering snakes,” five crocodiles, six very colorful chameleons, seven toucans, eight pandas, nine lemurs, and ten fish. One each spread, the pop-up looks like the number being shown on the page in the form of the animal that we are meeting.
The thick card pages will withstand being turned over again and again, and children are going to love the clever pop-ups.
