Groundhog Gets a Say

Pamela C. Swallow; Denise Bunkus (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

Swallow presents quite a bit of information about groundhogs in an entertaining story…Brunkus’ humorous, colorful illustrations portray the portly braggart and his companions with wry, apt expressions on their faces, conveying their annoyance, and, despite themselves, their curiosity. –Booklist

IF YOU LOVE THIS BOOK, THEN TRY:

Calmenson, Stephanie. The Frog Principal. Illus. by Denise Brunkus. Scholastic, 2001.

Cronin, Doreen. Diary of a Fly. HarperCollins, 2007.

Cronin, Doreen. Diary of a Spider. HarperCollins, 2005.

Cronin, Doreen. Diary of a Worm. HarperCollins, 2003.

Cuyler, Margery. Groundhog Stays Up Late. Walker, 2005.

Freeman, Don. Gregory’s Shadow. Puffin, 2002.

French, Jackie. Diary of a Wombat. Clarion, 2003.

Gibbons, Gail. Groundhog Day!Holiday House, 2007.

Gravett, Emily. Meerkat Mail. Macmillan, 2007.

Holub, Joan. Groundhog Weather School. Putnam, 2009.

Koscielniak, Bruce. Geoffrey Groundhog Predicts the Weather. Houghton Mifflin, 1995.

Kraft, Erik. Chocolatina. Illus. by Denise Brunkus. Scholastic, 2008, c1998.

Levine, Abby. Gretchen Groundhog, It’s Your Day! Albert Whitman, 1998.

Miller, Pat. Substitute Groundhog.Albert Whitman, 2006.

Old, Wendie C. The Groundhog Day Book of Facts and Fun. Albert Whitman, 2004.

Park, Barbara. Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. Illus. by Denise Brunkus. Random House, 1993.

Swallow, Pam. Melvil and Dewey in the Chips. Libraries Unlimited, 2004.