Animal Numbers by Bert Kitchen

Animal Numbers by Bert Kitchen

Rating: 3 stars

Not surprisingly, Ben saw this at the library last week and just had to have it.  He's a fan of our two weimaraners (who, luckily, are big fans of him) so the Irish Setters on the cover grabbed his attention.  This is a gorgeous book, with only a few words on the first page that introduce the book--and explain that the numbers correspond with the number of babies each mother animal has surrounding her. 

No doubt, it is a gorgeous book.  Kitchen draws incredibly realistic but also super creative pictures for each number, often making the animal and the number work together.  For example, the three baby squirrels climb up the number "3" and the four baby woodpeckers nest within the triangle of the "4" while the mama pecks away into the "4."  Lorelei traces the large, bold numbers with her fingers (a good pre-writing activity, I think).

It's not meant to be read aloud to kids, I know, and that's how we use most books these days, so I can't wax poetic about the book.  My biggest question comes from the last page, where Kitchen promises to explain all the babies names.  But then he doesn't.  He does say that a baby kangaroo is called a joey and states an interesting and often random fact about each baby animal, but...  We information-seekers want to know what babies are called!  I want Lorelei and Ben to pass that pop quiz of life, or in their second grade class when they are asked to identify all these things. 

Maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself and should just slooooooooooow down and enjoy the pictures of this book.  I'll do better at that sloooooooooooowing down thing.  Tomorrow. Or maybe next week.  Or next year?