Everyone is lending a hand in this bright and breezy counting book. There are parrots pulling up carrots, bears picking pears and even a swarm of bees busy pruning trees. The award-winning Julia Donaldson and distinctively talented Nick Sharratt have teamed up once again to show children how much fun digging and weeding the garden can be, even if they would rather be sitting in the garden with a long cool drink!

This  vibrant, bright and fun picture book will have the reader giggling as they turn every page. They can count and possibly even learn how to garden with the help of all the animals featured and they will discover just how much fun learning can be. Reading this picturebook will not only help children learn how to count all the way to ten, they will also learn how to recognise a variety of animals - even if they are not commonly found in gardens - understand the different tasks that a gardener might undertake, discover simple rhyme and without realising it have a great learning experience. Not only will they finish the book knowing the order of the numbers from 1 to 10, they will, with some practice be able to recognise them in the written form, numerical form and pictorial form.

Each double page spread contains minimal text consisting of the description of the number of animals featured in words and numerals and then a description of its action. For example there is ‘one mole, digging a hole’. For every animal the action that they are undertaking has been chosen for its rhyme, even the ‘eight crows’ can be found ‘with a garden hose’. The gentle yet subtle rhymes make the book very easy to read, the big, bold colourful numbers are easy to recognise and the pictures are vibrant, simple and also great fun. The actions of each of the animals are clear and it is easy for children to count how many of them there are as well as identify anything else that might be happening in the picture.

An interactive counting and rhyming book that will promote lots of giggles and will be revisited time and again. It provides many learning opportunities and should even encourage the most reluctant gardener to have a go! But watch out for who knows what animals might be lurking out in your garden!

2008-05-25