Editorial Review
SLJ Review of Counting Around Town
Counting around the community is encouraged in this highly visual series. In Counting at the Game, a fictional girl counts to ten at a football game, and the photos supporting the text include numerical labels to help identify things like the end zone. Kids enjoy a climbing wall, seesaws, swings, and more in Counting at the Playground. Each spread includes no more than two sentences with a repetitive sentence structure and the use of high-frequency words. Bright photos support the text with context clues. The simple, clean layouts and interesting subject matter make this a fine series for classroom collections. School and public libraries whose budgets are tight as the year draws to a close may want to cherry-pick the animal-focused titles, which will no doubt see the highest circulation. VERDICT: Counting at the Aquarium and Counting at the Zoo are first purchases for sure; buy the remaining titles if you can swing it.