Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters

Lenore Look; LeUyen Pham (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

Digest Paperback

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CRITICS HAVE SAID

There are certain stories kids read and just feel good for having read: this is one of them.–School Library Journal

IF YOU LOVE THIS BOOK, THEN TRY:

Brunelle, Lynne. Camp Out!: The Ultimate Kid’s Guide, from the Backyard to the Backwoods. Workman, 2007.

Cameron, Ann. The Stories Julian Tells. Yearling, 1989.

Dowell, Frances O’Roark. Phineas L. Macguire . . . Erupts!: The First Experiment. Atheneum, 2006.

Drake, Jane, and Ann Love. The Kids Campfire Book.Kids Can, 1998.

George, Kristine O’Connell. Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems. Clarion, 2001.

Gravett, Emily. Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears.Simon & Schuster, 2008.

Johnson, D. B. Henry Builds a Cabin. Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

Johnson, D. B. Henry Hikes to Fitchburg. Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

Krull, Kathleen. Houdini: World’s Greatest Mystery Man and Escape King. Walker, 2005.

Lin, Grace. The Year of the Dog.Little, Brown, 2006.

Look, Lenore. Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things. Schwartz & Wade, 2008.

Look, Lenore. Ruby Lu, Brave and True. Atheneum, 2004. (And others in the Ruby Lu series.)

McDonald, Megan. Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid.Candlewick, 2005. (And others in the Stink series.)

Pennypacker, Sara. Clementine. Hyperion, 2006. (And others in the Clementine series.)

Weeks, Sarah. Oggie Cooder. Scholastic, 2008. (And others in the Oggie Cooder series.)