Young children ask questions every day and in doing so expand the horizons of their world. Concept picture books provide many answers to these questions and at the same time give visual clues to help children figure things out for themselves.
Take a notion of counting. Learning to count fingers, people and objects in a picture are activities repeated over and over again. By seeing things in a variety of ways, children learn that numbering and grouping of numbers are orderly but also flexible.Four of my favorite new books on numbers provide different views of counting and groups of objects:
The text for HOW MANY HOW MANY HOW MANY by Utah writer Rich Walton, illustrated by Cynthia Jabar (Candlewick) is made up of doubletlike rhymes formed in a riddle taken from familiar or relevant topics: nursery rhymes, holidays and seasons. For example, the page for "Here Goldilocks sleeps all alone. How many bears are coming home?" is followed by a child holding the number and the equally simple answer.
The nymphlike children and animals cavort in terrific watercolor paintings that have a rhythm of their own. And what a bonus! At the end of the book, a list of hidden objects invites the reader to go back and count other items on each page. This is a sure-fire winner for children age 2 and up.
Speaking of cavorting, 1 GAPING WIDE-MOUTHED HOPPING FROG by Leslie Tryon (Atheneum) nearly jumps out of your hand! This frog is not just an ordinary creature; he is a mail deliverer bedecked in blue svelte turtle-neck sweater and striped trapeze pants. He hops in and out of pages delivering "2 birthday cakes for a very old dog" and other mail to "3 monkeys dancing the clog" and so on.
There is much subtlety here, such as Mrs. Golden's Day Care (she's a retriever, of course) and the overall-clad beavers working on a joiners hall. For the grand finale, Tryon brings all the characters back in a sweeping two-page spread for identifying again. This is much busier than the Walton book, which children will find humorous only if they understand the animals' antics.
ONLY ONE by Marc Harsham (Cobblehill Books/Dutton) is a grand enterprise of art technique and numbering systems. The text demonstrates how many things go together to make one item; for example: "There may be 100 patches. But there is only one quilt." and "There may be 8 horses. But there is only one merry-go-round."
While that is clever in itself, Barbara Garrison's illustrations expand the beauty of this counting book to a precious art piece. Her artwork is called "collagraph," a combination of collage and graphic art. A collagraph plate is made of pieces of paper and other materials glued on cardboard, inked and printed on an etching press. Once dried, washes of watercolor are applied. While the artist lists the materials she used for her collage, it would be interesting to have children (and adults!) guess what the samples were.
This is truly a beautiful book, one for older readers to enjoy.
12 WAYS TO GET TO 11 by Eve Merriam with illustrations by Bernie Karlin (Simon and Schuster) is the book you will want when children ask for a surprise. This is a surprise from front to back. First, it lists the numbers but skips 11. That's the surprise.
There are 12 ways to make 11 such as "A sow and ten baby piglets; six bites, a core, a stem and three apple seeds" or "five eggs, three cracking open, two beaks poking out, and one just hatched."
The large pictures are bright and splashy, just urging a young reader to count and count again.