Ten Orange Pumpkins: A Counting Book by Steven Savage

• Ten Orange Pumpkins: A Counting Book
  Steven Savage
  2013 Dial Books for Young Readers
  ISBN – 9780803739383
  Genre – Picture Book, Counting Book
  Age – Toddler
  4.8 Stars

We start with 10 orange pumpkins, but one by one, the characters of Halloween steal them away. The words in this book have a great rhythm they can be sung and they work perfectly with the countdown. The pictures are bright, colorful, and sharp. This is a great book to teach your toddler, not only about counting, but also about colors and Halloween. We are introduced to many characters that are a fun part of Halloween including a witch, a mummy, a scarecrow, a ghost, and more! Bonus game for the kids, try to spot the black cat on each page. Sometimes he is obvious and sometimes he is pretty well hidden. I just love great Halloween books and this is definitely one of them!

Cat Tale by Michael Hall

Cat Tale
Michael Hall
2012 Green Willow Books
ISBN – 9780061915161
Genre – Picture Book
Age – Preschool, Early Elementary
4.25 Stars

 

Lillian, Tilly, and William J. Set off for a fun day of eating and reading, but when they find the perfect spot, the spot some ewes. This starts a day of chasing words and rhymes, and homophones, and homonyms. Then suddenly all their words get jumbled up. How will they ever be able to finish their cat tale? I thought this book was really fun, it can really entertain a wide range of ages. Little ones will have fun with all of the rhyming and silly sequences, and early elementary students can potentially learn a lot of different language concepts as mentioned above. I loved the illustrations. They were super simple, many of em looked like they are paper cutouts stuck on a brick background. It is visually appealing as well as whimsical and just plain different. There is one point in the book that did get a little confusing, hopefully the preschoolers will be able to laugh at it, instead of think to deeply into that section.