Product Description

One little girl wakes up to a wondrous fairy-tale world. She spies two dancing feet from the Golden Goose tale, three hungry bears just visited by Goldilocks, and four royal mattresses between the Princess and the Pea. Simple in format, with many objects to count on each colorful page, 1 2 3 is just right for children learning their numbers 1 through 10. As in her ABC and Picture This . . . , acclaimed as “beautiful,” “inventive,” and “marvelous,” Alison Jay captivates with this clever work of art, treating readers of all ages to visual surprises, scenes from ten favorite fairy tales, and witty stories-within-stories.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62890 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-06
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 40 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In a sumptuous companion to her A B C, Jay takes readers on an enchanted journey from 1 to 10 and back again, with help from fairy tale figures. A quartet of self-satisfied frog princes impressively embody the number 4, while a plate of gingerbread men—including one poised for escape—represent the number 6. (Other counting opportunities abound in the backgrounds.) As in the previous book, Jay unspools a story-within-the-primer. One little girl, who has fallen asleep while reading, is transported to the magical landscape on the wings of the Goose That Laid the Golden Egg; this same bird serves as her chaperone as she visits the subsequent scenes as an amazed onlooker. At number 9, the goose is reunited with her precious-metal eggs, and the girl finds herself cast as Little Red Riding Hood and other heroines as the numbers reach 10 and head back to 1. Close attention will reveal other links; for example, the view of Jack's beanstalk (created from seven magic beans) also includes one of the eight rats who figure prominently in the following spread, inspired by the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The pictures are a wonder to behold: Jay's flattened perspectives, gently faded colors, crackle-glaze finishes and lean, angular characterizations vaguely evoke the dreamy, ambiguous narrative qualities of medieval art. And yet the pictures never feel like museum pieces—rather, they're like missives from a universe where it's Once Upon a Time 24/7. Ages 3-up. (Sept.)
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From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 3—In this beautiful companion volume to Jay's ABC (Dutton, 2003), a child ("one little girl sleeping") dreams that she travels on a large golden goose ("two soaring wings") to visit a variety of nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Each place she visits has things to count: "three little pigs," "four frog princes," etc. The text is simple, with only three or four words on each page. The real story is told through the paintings done in Jay's familiar crackle-glaze style of simple shapes, jeweled colors, and soft lines. In each picture, the artist includes delightful details that reward observant viewers. For example, the page that says, "Eight running rats" also includes eight shoes, eight cupcakes, and a tiny view of the beanstalk from the previous page. The girl and the goose can be found on every spread, which adds continuity to the story. Some pages have hints of things to come, like the six beans lying on the table next to the six gingerbread men, foreshadowing the "Jack and the Beanstalk" scene on the next page. This clever picture book will delight the very young as well as children already familiar with the fairy tales.—Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT
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Booklist, starred review
This beautifully designed book will work for individual viewing as well as classroom sharing and discussion.

Customer Reviews

A fun book....
Our daughter loves books (she's 2), and this one is no exception....However, two things come to mind when we read it together:

1) Things seem a bit frantic in much of the book...There are often running figures in the backgrounds and foregrounds, (with no apparent reason for them to be doing so), giving a strangely uncomfortable "busy" feel not present in "I took The Moon for a Walk", for example.

2) The "Big, Bad Wolf" picture is a bit frightening ("10 sharp teeth" in closeup....)My daughter needs to be convinced the wolf is not going to "bite" anyone...Other than that, it'e excellent, and she wants to read it with me daily.

One of our favorite books
This book is fun for both kids and adults. As with the "ABC: A Child's First Alphabet Book", it's fun to look at the pictures and find the other things that also fit in that category (letter for the alphabet book or number for the counting book.) The pictures are pretty and detailed, and the fairy tale theme is appealing. It's fun to reread because we try to find other things we may have missed previously.

Enchanting!
This is a beautiful, enchanting book. The illustrations are superb, the text simple and sweet leaving plenty of time to peruse the details of the pictures. There is a fairy tale theme subtly carried throughout. My 3.5 and 7 year old daughters both love this book.