5 Funny Animals

About this book

It’s time for Count and Seek – would you like to come and play?

This charming picture book invites the child to count animals throughout. There are always five animals on each spread, but some are doing different things. So, for instance, if there are four bears eating honey in the kitchen and one bear reading under the stairs, how many bears are there altogether? What if two ducks leave the paddling pool? How many are left splashing about? These gentle questions, written in rhyming couplets, feel natural and easy to ask the child. Each animal has a digit by it, so that it’s clear what number to count to. In this way, the child practises counting and is introduced to the concepts of adding, subtracting and number bonds for 5, though these concepts aren’t named.

But the real joy of this book is in the animals’ energy. There are bouncing frogs, sailing goats, singing cats – the fun goes on! Most scenes are recognisably from everyday life, from a sandpit corner at a nursery, to swings in the park, to the seaside. The illustrations give a friendly feel to the jaunty text, and the whole book is brilliantly interactive.