Fruits: a Caribbean counting poem
by Valerie Bloom, illustrated by David Axtell
Interest age: 4 to 7
Reading age: 5+
Published by Macmillan Children's Books, 1997
About this book
In Fruits, a girl eats and describes a variety of exotic fruit in her Caribbean dialect. While some of the rhymes may be tricky at first, pronunciation becomes clear through context, and trickier words are defined in the glossary. (For instance, ‘The smaddy who lef them really kind’ – smaddy means ‘somebody’.)
After eating all that fruit, the girl gets a stomachache, although most readers will come away hungry, wanting to try these delicious fruits themselves!
David Axtell’s colourful and radiant illustrations appear to be painted with oil on a rough canvas that peeks through the paint. Axtell’s brushstrokes are clear, making for a rich and vibrant sense of motion and energy throughout the book: he does a remarkable job capturing the light and warmth of the Caribbean colour palette in a story that is sure to inspire drooling, as the main character counts through native fruits that may be unknown to readers from northern climes.
This book is a reprint of the original 1992 Duppy Jamboree, which won a Smarties Prize Bronze Award.
About the author
More books like this
-
The River's a Singer
by Valerie Bloom, illustrated by Sophie Bass
9 to 14 years
-
Stars With Flaming Tails
by Valerie Bloom, illustrated by Ken Wilson-Max
5 to 14 years
-
Meet the Oceans
by Caryl Hart, illustrated by Bethan Woollvin
4 to 9 years
-
Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets
by Hena Khan, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini
4 to 9 years
Lists of recommended reads
-
Counting books
1, 2, 3... it's time to get counting! It's never too early to start learning about numbers, and books are a great way to make that fun. We've put together a list of some of our favourite counting books to help your little ones get to grips with maths - and whether they're totting up gorillas, fruits, or even legs, they'll be enjoying themselves so much that they'll be memorising pi before you know it.
-
Go bananas for these books
Kids love bananas, so we've put together some brilliant books featuring this fantastic fruit.