Judy Moody Goes to College

Megan McDonald; Peter H. Reynolds (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

An appended glossary defines terms such as geck, roomie, ‘rents, and sick-awesome. Penned with expression and verve, Reynolds’ ink drawings illustrate this amusing addition to the Judy Moody series.–Booklist

IF YOU LOVE THIS BOOK, THEN TRY:

Amato, Mary. The Word Eater. Holiday House, 2000.

Blume, Judy. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Dutton, 1972.

Cameron, Ann. The Stories Huey Tells. Knopf, 1995. (And others in the Stories Huey Tells series.)

Cleary, Beverly. Ramona Quimby, Age 8. Morrow, 1981. (And others in the Ramona series.)

Danziger, Paula. Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon. Putnam, 1994. (And others in the Amber Brown series.)

Frasier, Debra. Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster. Harcourt, 2000.

Lowry, Lois. All About Sam. Houghton Mifflin, 1988. (And others in the Sam series.)

Lowry, Lois. Gooney Bird and the Room Mother. Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

Lowry, Lois. Gooney Bird Greene. Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

MacDonald, Amy. No More Nasty. Farrar, 2001.

McDonald, Megan. Judy Moody, M.D.: The Doctor Is In!Candlewick, 2004. (And others in the Judy Moody series.)

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

Pennypacker, Sara. Clementine’s Letter. Hyperion, 2008. (And others in the Clementine series.)