Customer Reviews

Count with Maisy

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Maisy, in this book, was the one who finally taught my toddler to count to ten. Although we often recited the numbers to him, he never seemed to "get it" until his father started reading this book to him every night. Now, not only can he name the objects being counted in the book, but he can count the numbers for you. The book is bright and visually appealing, just right for toddlers.

Count with Maisy is a toddler counting book with a difference, and might better be titled "Find and Count with Maisy." The illustrations, rendered in bright primary hues, lend themselves to a bit more than rote counting, allowing the reader to encourage the child to first look for, then identify, the objects, which helps develop visual discrimination and categorization skills. This is a format that can grow with the child. It can also be read by an older child who enjoys teaching the younger. Good little learning package.

This book is really nothing special unless your little one is wild about Maisy. It's a simple counting book -- "One ladybug, two flowers, etc." However, the counting items are not featured on the page. And some of them are downright hard to see and count, like 7 steps (on a slide). The pictures are nice and bright and colorful, so two stars for the overall illustrations, but as a counting book, this is very weak. I like "10 little ladybugs" myself. My toddler was counting to 10 at about 14 months..freakish actually, because she liked to pick this to read with my husband and count the VERY easy to see, raised ladybugs on the pages.

While my toddlers love(d) Maisy, the counting of items is not very easily followed by those with 20 second attention spans. For example, to count 4, there are four itsy-bitsy, very small paint splotches on a paint palette Maisy holds. Or for 10, you have to count 10 small black fleas against the gray background of Eddy the Elephant's skin. As much as I love Maisy, I'd get another book for counting. Don't get me wrong, we have at least 12 other Maisy books. This one isn't one of the better ones.

Maisy is one of the few modern characters in children's books that I truly like. So many of the newer authors and writing that are available, I believe, lacks the integrity, depth and substance of many of the older classics and writers. Maybe I'm just a literary snob (admittedly). However, my son (who will be three very shortly) absolutely loves Maisy and can't wait to get his hands on every Maisy book he can find. He is very advanced in his knowledge of letters and numbers for his age, and I attribute much of this to his interest in the Maisy books we have that present numbers and letters to children in a very fun and interesting format.
My only criticism of this book is that as a counting tool, some of the items presented for counting on each number page are not terribly easy to identify for very young children. For example, on the 3 page, Maisy is pictured wearing a pirate outfit with a buckle on her belt and two buckles on her shoes. The buckles are small and not readily noticable for children who are maybe 2 to 3 years of age. This occurs several times in a book that counts to the number 10. Overall, however, the charm and sweetness of Maisy is present here.

We've had this book for several months now, and while my son is now thirteen mos old, the objects being counted are too small for him to really follow (leaves, pencils, shoebuckles, slide steps, fleas). I got this book because my son loves Maisy, and of course he enjoys reading this book because of the bright colors and familiar characters, but I think there are better counting books out there for young toddlers.