The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride series)

The Angel Experiment

James Patterson

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

Also available from:

CRITICS HAVE SAID

“Nonstop action carries this page-turner breathlessly from start to finish… Speed, suspense, excitement. ” – Kirkus

“[Patterson] delivers an action-packed cross between Gertrude Chandler Warner’s Boxcar Children and Marvel Comics’X-Men.” – Booklist

“The key to Maximum Ride’s success may be that it incorporates concepts familiar to young people…What makes these characters so appealing is that they have wings and can fly…Another plus: the book has the feel of a video game…The writing is visual and cinematic—things that kids expect from their video games, TV cartoon shows and action movies. And the ending leaves plenty of wiggle room for a sequel. ” – USA Today

IF YOU LOVE THIS BOOK, THEN TRY:

Collins, Suzanne. Gregor the Overlander. Scholastic, 2003. (And others in the Gregor series.) ISBN-13: 978-0439435369

LaFevers, R. L. Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos. Houghton Mifflin, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0618999767

Landy, Derek. Skulduggery Pleasant. HarperCollins, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0061231179

L’Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time. Farrar, 1962. Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. Knopf, 1996. ISBN-13: 978-0375838309

Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief. Miramax/Hyperion, 2005. (And others in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series.)

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Scholastic, 1998. (And others in the Harry Potter series.) ISBN-13: 978-0439362139

Stewart, Trent Lee. The Mysterious Benedict Society. Little, Brown, 2007.