Each gorgeous page is filled with critters begging to be counted and summed, from spots on butterflies and legs on turtles to flower petals and stripes on fishes.  Whether in the classroom or at home, your child will love exploring each picture to find more and more examples of each number on its page.  The rhyming text is easy to read and includes the basic addition facts for each number from one to ten.

Notes for Parents and Educators

While this is a fun book to read and explore on its own, this book can also be used educationally in many ways.  Read on to find many examples of way this book was designed to help your child learn not only math and art, but science, poetry - and even music!

Each page also contains hidden numbers.  The number of hidden numbers depends on the page.  For example, the full two-page spread for the number 7 will contain seven hidden 7s.

Can you find 5 of the hidden 7s on this portion of the Seven page?

Music is an extension of poetry.  In this case, the text of Let's Count, Sum Critters was written in the same musical pattern as the song "Yankee Doodle".

Try singing this text to the tune of "Yankee Doodle.

Each page in this book has been lovingly hand painted by professional artist Kathleen Dentes.  She specifically designed each illustration, not to be glanced at while the text was read, but to be examined in detail, over and over.  Each stripe, each spot, each petal or curly vine was added for a purpose: to be counted.

How would you have illustrated this text?  What colors would you have chosen?

Jungle with monkeys and jungle birds