Product Description

Welcome to a lush meadow bustling with activity, where one turtle digs, two fish swim, three bluebirds sing, and so on to ten fireflies that shine in the night. Keats's collage-style illustrations perfectly complement this classic Appalachian counting rhyme, which is also a popular song for toddlers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #196835 in Books
• Published on: 1995-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

Customer Reviews

An excellent rendition!
From the award winner Ezra Jack Keats comes another masterpiece of a picture book. Based on the original by Olive Wadsworth, Keats's animals come alive on the page as the babies perform their mothers' commands. Keats uses bright colors and simple lines to make this a good book for sharing with a large group or single child.

An Old Favorite, Well Done
There are many, many different illustrations of these verses, but Mr. Keats has certainly done an excellent job of making his book distinctive.

Whereas most of the other books have pastel, baby-style, cartoonish drawings, this book is done in a 'more mature' style, using watercolors in a darker palette. [I would direct you to the Amazon "Search Inside this book" feature but ironically it doesn't seem to be working. Instead take a look at the turtle on the back cover to get an idea.]

Five Stars. A classic rhyme with distinctive artwork. This is a book for preschoolers and kindergarteners, etc. that well may be weary of babish artwork.

Provides for an Interactive Story Time
This is my most favorite rendition (Ezra Jack Keats, Illustrator). I believe different versions of this picture book use different verses from the original poem by Olive Wadsworth since they include different creatures. I've been using this particular version for years.

This story (regardless the rendition) provides for interactive story telling as kids like to guess what number comes next before you turn the page. If it doesn't come natural to them, simply prompt them.

I began sharing this story with a Scholastic edition which had a read-along cassette with a musical re-telling (I highly recommend it). Now, I sing this text and the kids provide the turn the page signals (I prompt them to hum the tune that was used on that Scholastic cassette, now CD).

A counting story, a story in rhyme. Playful.