How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?

Jane Yolen; Mark Teague (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

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CRITICS HAVE SAID

Teague’s funny, full-color illustrations are dominated by the creatures and lift the lightly didactic to the highly entertaining as human parents care for their dino charges in children’s bedrooms filled with toys, clothes, shoes, books, and a nervous cat, or in a doctor’s office.–School Library Journal

IF YOU LOVE THIS BOOK, THEN TRY:

Broach, Elise. When Dinosaurs Came with Everything. Atheneum, 2007.

Cherry, Lynne. Who’s Sick Today? Dutton, 1988.

Dodson, Peter. An Alphabet of Dinosaurs. Scholastic, 1995.

Edwards, Pamela Duncan. Dinorella: A Prehistoric Fairy Tale. Hyperion, 1997.

Gibbons, Gail. Dinosaurs. Holiday House, 2008.

Hearn, Diane Dawson. Dad’s Dinosaur Day. Macmillan, 1993.

Hoff, Syd. Danny and the Dinosaur. HarperCollins, 1986.

LeGuin, Ursula K. A Visit from Dr. Katz. Atheneum, 1988.

McMullan, Kate. I’m Bad! HarperCollins, 2008.

Most, Bernard. How Big Were the Dinosaurs? Harcourt, 1994.

Nolan, Dennis. Dinosaur Dreams. Macmillan, 1990.

Rohmann, Eric. Time Flies. Crown, 1994.

Shields, Carol Diggory. Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp. Candlewick, 1997.

Stickland, Paul, and Henrietta Stickland. Dinosaur Roar! Dutton, 1994.

Talbott, Hudson. We’re Back! Crown, 1987.

Thomas, Shelley Moore. Get Well, Good Knight. Dutton, 2002.

Wallace, Karen. I Am a Tyrannosaurus. Atheneum, 2004.

Wells, Rosemary. Felix Feels Better. Candlewick, 2001.

Whybrow, Ian. Sammy and the Dinosaurs. Orchard, 1999.

Willems, Mo. Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct. Hyperion, 2006.

Yolen, Jane. How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? Blue Sky/Scholastic, 2000. (And others in the How Do Dinosaurs series.)