Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Eileen Christelow (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

Trade Paperback

Also available from:

CRITICS HAVE SAID

This is a natural for younger story hours, and can also be used with beginning readers. Whether sublimely happy or ridiculously goofy, Christelow’s expressive monkeys pack a lot of appeal. – School Library Journal

IF YOU LOVE THIS BOOK, THEN TRY:

Arnold, Tedd. No Jumping on the Bed. Dial, 1987.

Arnold, Tedd. Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name. Scholastic, 2004.

Hoberman, Mary Ann. There Once Was a Man Named Michael Finnegan. Little, Brown, 2001.

Anholt, Catherine, and Laurence Anholt. Chimp and Zee. Putnam, 2001.

Christelow, Eileen. Five Little Monkeys Bake a Birthday Cake. Clarion, 2004, c1992.

Christelow, Eileen. Five Little Monkeys Go Shopping. Clarion, 2007.

Christelow, Eileen. Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree. Clarion, 1991.

Christelow, Eileen. Five Little Monkeys Play Hide-and-Seek. Clarion, 2004.

Christelow, Eileen. Five Little Monkeys Wash the Car. Clarion, 2000.

Christelow, Eileen. Five Little Monkeys with Nothing to Do. Clarion, 2004, c1996.

Dewdney, Anna. Llama Llama Red Pajama. Viking, 2005. (And others in the Llama, Llama series.)

Diakitée Baba Waguée The Hatseller and the Monkeys. Scholastic, 1999.

Goode, Diane. Monkey Mo Goes to Sea. Blue Sky/Scholastic, 2002.

Gravett, Emily. Monkey and Me. Simon & Schuster, 2008.

Johnson, Paul Brett. Little Bunny Foo Foo. Scholastic, 2004.

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Yolen, Jane. How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? Scholastic, 2000.