Raven Howell

A wonderful book to read to a child before they begin their first day of school, or to read to a class on their first day of school. It shows them that no matter what their differences they are all better together. Plus, you get the added bonus of teaching children about mixing colors. A win, win if you ask me.

I read this with my 5 year old grandson to get his opinion. I worried that the book would not hold his interest but that was no problem. While the story is very simple, it encourages counting and the illustrations are great. I asked him his favorite part and he said when Mattison was being followed by all these animals and was scared. He also loved the gathering of all his friends at the end. I'm sure I will be reading this to him many times.

This is a very delightful learning how to count book. The illustrations are charming and I enjoyed how the book incorporated repeation in its narrative. Would recommend this book to anyone who has children learning how to count.

In this book the concepts of shape and size are emphasized as well as newer vocabulary (skittered, pitter-patter) are introduced. Counting goes from 1 to 10 different animals and then 1 to 10 again with party supplies reinforcing the number concepts. The book is well written with few words for early readers. Each page has a lot to look at with all the ladybugs and some pages having animal prints on the ground.

It's an enjoyable book to look at and a fun book to read.