Sunday, January 29, 2012

Fish, Swish! Splash, Dash! Suse MacDonald


This is a truly unique 1 to 10 counting-up and counting-down book. It's especially cool because it's a neverending, circular story that begins: 

Follow the leader 
and count with me
the fish that live
beneath the sea...

The text from then on is mostly simple a new fish is added on each page. The text reads: 1 fish, 2 fish, 3 fish, etc. The fish are all wildly different and intriguing. The colors are bright and beautiful. Each stencil of cut-out fish overlays the next group of fish, so that the next fish are used to pattern the previous page's fish. Each new group of fish is an exciting revelation.

As we come to the end of the book (or what would traditionally be the end), we:
Follow the leader and do it again!
Which means we turn the book upside down and count back down to ten. Page by page, the stencils all work in reverse now from back to front. Very innovative--I think totz will love this!

This is not a true board book, but the pages are fairly sturdy and should hold up to substantial wear, but not chewing.

Fish, Swish! Splash, Dash!
Author-illustrator: Suse MacDonald
Little Simon, 2007

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