Books that COUNT!

For little ones, looking at books develops many important cognitive skills and early literacy (what we call “pre-reading”). It’s important to expose very young children to books that have pictures that tell a vivid story to capture a young one’s imagination, as well as text that an adult can repeatedly read along with the child as they practice shared attention. Any book will do, whether it’s a nonsense poem, an exciting narrative, a lesson about feelings, or a simple point-and-find book.

Books can also be used to help teach early academic skills for your burgeoning mathematician. Many parents cannot wait to begin this journey into number theory with that first all important lesson: Counting!

Counting books can be lots of fun for children. Many, but not all, are rhyming, and they are almost always paired with fun illustrations that will help your child understand the connection between a number word and the amount of objects in the picture.

Here are a few that I like:

Star Wars 123 is a large and sturdy board book with shiny photograph illustrations from the film franchise. It is not a rhyming book, but the text is clear and simple, providing both the numerals and the written out numbers for each page. It is fun to use the universe of Star Wars to count with your child: ONE grand master Yoda, TWO sides of the force, THREE heroic friends Han, Luke, and Leia, all the way up to ten, with a few extra pages to illustrate 25, 50, and 100. Although I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, even I have to smile when I think of this book.

As your little mathematician explores number theory, they must learn to count both forwards and backwards. Paul Stickland’s Ten Terrible Dinosaurs begins with ten and removes one dinosaur at a time (because they fall down, or their mom calls them home) to eventually get all the way down to one. This rhyming book is a great choice for very young children.

Tall Tall Tree, written by Anthony D. Fredericks and illustrated by Chad Wallace, is a lovely book to teach children about nature and ecosystems while they count from one to ten. It takes place high in the treetops of a majestic redwood tree and tells a rhyming story counting the animals that can be found up there. (Continue below)

Tall Tall Tree (continued). Although the illustrations are breathtaking, my only problem is that young children who are learning to count for the first time will have trouble finding all the animals they are supposed to count. Older children will appreciate this challenge, and will even find some hidden creatures on each page that are described at the end of the book. At the end of the day, this book is more about nature appreciation than counting, but I still like to include it in my counting books repertoire.

Are there other rhyming books that I missed? How old was your child when they learned to count to ten all by themself? Let me know your thoughts in the comments! Thank you for reading.