No, David!

No, David! (25th Anniversary Edition)

David Shannon (Illustrator)

Though I work in a bookstore, I discovered 1 2 3 when my brother gave it to my one-year-old daughter with the intention of helping her learn to count. At first glance I thought it was a nice counting book with beautiful illustrations. Once we read it a couple times, though, I began to notice details I had missed that made reading this book so much more than reciting numbers.

Each page represents a number and also offers delightful hidden surprises. The number six, for example, stars Hansel and Gretel and six shiny sweets, six lollipops outside the witch’s house, six mushrooms in the yard, six white birds, and six cats sulking about. Every page is a scavenger hunt with tons of little details tucked into the nooks and crannies of the illustrations that reinforce that page’s number. Children (and their parents) will enjoy recognizing characters they know well, with spreads depicting scenes from fairy tales from Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk to The Red Shoes and Little Red Riding Hood. There are often characters from other stories slipped into the background, foreshadowing their dedicated page to come. If you look out the window of the Gingerbread Man’s kitchen, for example, you will see Jack’s beanstalk off in the distance and the Ugly Duckling’s pond on the horizon.

This is one counting book I won’t mind reading over and over because I find new details each time we read it. My daughter, at one, is captivated by the illustrations. She loves pointing out the different animals and details. I can only imagine that as she gets older, she will love the treasure-hunt aspects this book offers even more than I do. I think it will help make counting and learning math a lot of fun for her!

Format

Hardcover

Also available from:

CRITICS HAVE SAID

Kids won’t be able to resist the rough-and-tumble David[‘s]…monster talent for getting into trouble.–Newsweek

The vigorous and wacky full-color acrylic paintings portray a lively and imaginative boy whose stick-figure body conveys every nuance of anger, exuberance, defiance, and, best of all, the reassurance of his mother’s love. This book is perfect for reading aloud.–School Library Journal

Shannon’s pen whisks over the double-page spreads in a flurry of energy, as he gains perspective on an image of a bare-bottomed David cavorting down a quiet suburban street or closes in on the boy’s face as he inserts a finger into his triangle nose, his button eyes tense with concentration, and perfectly round head looming larger than the pages.–Publishers Weekly

IF YOU LOVE THIS BOOK, THEN TRY:

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Bush, Timothy. Benjamin McFadden and the Robot Babysitter. Crown, 1998.

Delton, Judy. I’m Telling You Now. Dutton, 1983.

Fearnley, Jan. Watch Out! Candlewick, 2004.

Feiffer, Jules. I’m Not Bobby! Hyperion, 2001.

Hutchins, Pat. Where’s the Baby? Greenwillow, 1988.

Jonell, Lynne. I Need a Snake. Putnam, 1998.

Long, Melinda. How I Became a Pirate. Illus. by David Shannon. Harcourt, 2003.

Marshall, James. The Cut-Ups. Viking, 1984.

Shannon, David. David Gets in Trouble. Scholastic, 2002.

Shannon, David. David Goes to School. Scholastic, 1999.

Vail, Rachel. Sometimes I’m Bombaloo. Scholastic, 2002.

Wells, Rosemary. Noisy Nora. Dial, 1997.

Willems, Mo. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. Hyperion, 2003.