1, 2, 3… By the Sea: A Counting Book

PreS—A child, a mother, and their dog spend a day at the beach observing wildlife and engaging in shore activities that climax with a walk to the snack shack for ice cream before heading back home for the night. The book follows the trip with a count of sights from 1 rented "flapping, snapping" beach umbrella to 10 "peeping, sleeping" plovers in the grass. The rhyming text provides both the written number and numeral imposed behind it. For example, on a tableau of the characters building nine sand castles, a large number 9 is set behind the following: "We build towers in the sunshine…/sloppy,/gloppy./We make NINE." While the pencil and watercolor illustrations capture a sense of movement and convey a pleasant day, they sometimes suffer from odd perspectives and font colors that occasionally blend in with the background. In light of the abundance of counting books, this one is a nonessential choice.—Laura Hunter, Mount Laurel Library, NJ