English Cymraeg

One in a Million

by Smriti Halls, illustrated by Nila Aye

Interest age: 4 to 5

Published by HarperCollins Children's Books, 2025

  • Picture books
  • Poetry and rhyme

About this book

Debra the zebra has learned how to count! But when she tries to count her own stripes, she gets stuck after ten. Luckily, her mother is close at hand, and they count up to a million and two! Debra is delighted by how fabulous numbers are. But she has one trembly question: as there are so many zebras on the savannah, how will her mother find her again? 

A heartwarming story about parental love, and the joy of numbers! The reader is taken through numbers one to ten, counting beetles and butterflies and the nature around Debra, and there is much energy and delight from the little zebra in the discovery of her world and its numbers. A child listening to the story might enjoy counting each element on the page or pointing at them. The adorable illustrations depict both the stunning savannah setting and Debra’s enthusiasm beautifully. The text is in a smooth rhythmic rhyme, which makes it a pleasure to read aloud, too. Gorgeous! 

About the author

Smriti Halls is an award-winning, critically acclaimed children's author, published in more than 30 languages worldwide. Her books include #1 bestseller I Love You Night and Day, I'm Sticking with You, Elephant in My Kitchen and The Little Island.

With a cast of characters as varied as mischievous monsters and disgruntled geese, she explores relationship and identity; the personal and the political; how it feels to be in your own skin - and in someone else's. Her books, often fast-paced and funny or lyrical and tender, are always full of heart and hope and speak to the child in all of us.

Smriti also creates bold board books to engage the very smallest readers, young fiction for newly independent readers and beautiful, highly illustrated non-fiction for older readers including the award-winning The Ways of the Wolf.

The Little Island is currently shortlisted for the 2020 Little Rebels Award and the 2020 Teach Primary Awards, while I'm Sticking With You was the Independent Bookshops Children's Book of the Month for August 2020. Her forthcoming picture book Rain Before Rainbows (illustrated by David Litchfield) has been made available ahead of publication in partnership with Save the Children as a free e-book to support their work with families most affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Smriti works widely with children and adults in schools, libraries, festivals, bookshops and prisons to bring a love of reading and stories to the widest possible audience. She lives in London and is also published as Smriti Prasadam-Halls.

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