All about One, Two, Three

School Library Journal

ea. vol: unpaged. bibliog. (My First Easy and Fun Bks.) CIP. Gareth Ste vens. 1987. PSm $8.95. PreS-KThe most impressive of these two British imports is the humorous al phabet book. The text begins: ``Have you ever seen. . . an alligator eating an apple? . . .a buffalo in a bathtub? . . .a camel wearing a crown? . . . Neither have I.'' The realistically rendered paintings of animals in absurd situa tions are in soft watercolors with the words beginning with the letter at the bottom of the page in boldface type and the lower-case letter at the top of the page bounded by two smaller individual pictures of the objects. There's plenty of child appeal here, but the omission of capital letters detracts. Double-page spreads of flora and fauna in vibrant watercolors highlight a counting book that is marred by a textbook tone and format. Not only are children asked to ``help'' Sam, a young jungle explorer, count animals, but they are also re quested to tally beasts exhibiting spe cific (physical) traits and behaviors. While the former task is straightfor ward, the latter is likely to prove chal lenging, in part due to the subtle details of the illustrations. Lists of related ac tivities are appended in both books. Since children discover most of these games naturally (``count the number of red cars that pass your house'' etc.), it seems unnecessary.Julie Corsaro, University of Chicago Laboratory Schools