Up to Ten and Down Again

By Lisa Campbell Ernst

Book Overview

When 1 duck spies 2 cars pulling up by the pond and out dash 3 dogs, 4 boys, 5 girls, picnic pandemonium is about to begin. "An imaginative wordless story book....A counting book extraordinaire."--School Library Journal.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688143911
• ISBN13: 9780688143916
• Release Date: August 1995
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.3" x 9.5"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

4 1/2 An Excellent Counting Book Within a Story!

Although this is an engaging counting book, it appears that Ms. Ernst did not use the technique she employed in her great "Walter's Tail." In that book, she gets very luminous illustrations by building layers of pastels, and drawing over them with ink and pencil. Still, The illustrations here show action, have nice crosshatched shadings, and are easy to follow, but they pale (literally and figuratively) in comparison to MS. Ernst's splendid work in 'Walter.' Ernst has written an interesting and creative counting book, however. There's a plot--a picnic--that drives the number-linked events. One lone duck, for example, watches and eventually swims outside the borders of the illustrations!) as 2 cars, 3 dogs, 4 boys, 5 girls, 6 balls, etc. arrive at the park. In a clever twist, the duck steps ourside the borders of Ernst's pictures and looks in on the action just as the reader does. ALong with the main scene, there are small squares containing something referred to in the 2-page spreads, and these small focused sub-pictures facilitate counting. For example, when 7 boats arrive on the scene, your young counter will see them in the river, but will also see 7 much smaller pictures--one for each boat--at the top of the spread. ERnst put a lot of thought into the book's design. The phrase "10 clouds" is repeated, and the picnic-goers look at what seems like a gathering storm. In fact, 9 hats are blown off of 9 heads! They begin packing up the picnic party objects in reverse order of their arrival, as rain begins to come down. It's a great lesson in counting forwards and backwards to ten, all within a completely plausible narrative. After they leave, our 1 duck jumps back intothe pond; after all, water rolls off this bird like...well, water off a duck's back! THere are two unexpected but well-done extras at the back of the book. In another 2-page spread, the numbers 1 through 10 are listed, with the matching number of small objects next to them. ("5," for example, has five small pictures of girls to the right of it.) This is a great visual summary of the 1-10 numbers, and shows how each succeeds the other by just one additional box. Finally, the book's "mascot," the duck, is joined in the rained-on pond by a number of fellow ducks. How many ducks exactly remains another fun counting lesson. An entertaining book that doesn't demand counting, but shows instead why it can be be useful.

good for teaching ESL

The text is written of a pattern of numbers followed by plural nouns. This makes it easy for students of English as a second language to understand. If you are teaching Asian students, who usually have trouble with the plural form, you might like this book.