How Many Snails?: A Counting Book ANNOTATION
A young child takes walks to different places and wonders about the amount and variety of things seen on the way.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
A series of simple questions directs young readers to determine the differences between seemingly similar objects, encouraging them to develop powers of observation, discrimination, and visual analysis. There's plenty of opportunity to practice counting, too (but that's just the beginning!). With eye-catching, bold illustrations by a two-time Caldecott Honor-Book recipient.
Author Biography: Paul Giganti, Jr. teaches math to students and teachers od all ages at a public science museum on the University ofalifornia campus at Berkeley.
FROM THE CRITICS
American Bookseller
Fun and imaginative.
Five Owls
Excellent!
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 1-- Crews' dynamic illustrations provide a lot of visual appeal to this nevertheless flawed counting book. The narrator walks to various places and wonders about the numbers of things which are to be seen. Unfortunately, several of the questions and illustrations are ambiguous, making the book frustrating for children to use without supervision. On one page when asked to count starfish, many children will count only those with five arms since this is the common starfish with which they are most familiar. Only in the next question do they find that this first counting should have included all of the creatures in the picture. On another page, trucks are to be counted, but it is unclear exactly what constitutes a ``truck.'' Some children will not count fire engines as trucks until asked to count them specifically in later questions. There are also some yellow vehicles which could be buses, vans, or trucks depending upon individual interpretation. All this makes a book which can be confusing for independent readers, especially since there is no key to provide help or reinforcement. This may be considered for purchase and used with adult guidance. --Lori A. Janick, Parkwood Elementary School, Pasadena, Tex.
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