Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes

by
Mem Fox
Illustrator: Helen Oxenbury

Babies may be born in different countries, look a little different and have different needs, but one thing that most have in common are ten fingers and ten toes. This is the uniting theme, and rhyme, of this perfect first book for sharing.

From the swaddled newborn, to children sitting alone, then crawling together, and then standing, the illustrations show babies born all over the world in the country and cities, all with irresistibly chubby fingers and toes.

The encouragement and potential for the reader to interact with their baby while reading aloud is obvious, and when the tale turns to the baby that is ‘mine, all mine’ and supplies a final, surprise extension to the ‘ten little toes’ rhyme, the opportunity for bonding is made perfect.

Publisher: Walker Books

Helen Oxenbury

Growing up in Ipswich, England, Helen Oxenbury loved nothing more than drawing. As a teenager, she entered art school and basked in the pleasure of drawing, and nothing but drawing, all day. During vacations she helped out at the Ipswich Repertory Theatre workshop, mixing paints for set designers. It was there that she decided her future lay in theatre design. While studying costume design, however, Helen was told by a teacher, "This is hopeless, you know. You ought to go and do illustrations - you're much more interested in the character, and we don't know who's going to play the part!"

Helen Oxenbury
Mem Fox

Mem Fox is Australia's favourite children's picture book author. Her books, loved for their exquisite warmth of feeling and pitch-perfect language, have become classics all over the world. Born in Melbourne in 1946, Mem's missionary parents took her to Africa at the age of just six months. As a child she went to the Hope Fountain mission school, near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, then at eighteen she left the country and moved to London where she studied drama. In 1969 she married Malcolm, a teacher, with whom she had a daughter, Chloë. Mem lives with her family in Adelaide, South Australia.

Mem Fox