Customer Reviews

One, Two, Skip a Few: First Number Rhymes

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

 

 

A great book!
Every number rhyme I know is in this book and then some. Many of the classics are in here; One Potato, Two Potato and Ten In a Bed to name a few. There are many number rhymes I didn't know in here as well.

The illustrations are bright and cheerful.

Two things I particularly like about this book:
One, the actions to the finger rhymes are not described in this book.
I know many people would like to see these actions written out so they know what to do while reading this book to their child. However, it has been my experience that a. your child knows you are not reading those words and wants you to which only takes away from the book. b. even if you don't act out the rhymes the book and rhymes are just as fun and c. you can't have a kid in your lap and act out the rhymes anyways. d. books that try to explain the finger action that matches the rhyme only serves as a distraction since you can't read both the rhyme and the directions at once.
The other thing I particularly like about this book is that it does not repeat each stanza of the rhymes. For example, it will give you the first verse and the last verse with the note after the first verse to continue until you reach one (such as Ten in a Bed... it assumes you can repeat the first verse until you count down to one and then provides the last verse.)

Great book!
A lot of fun!

MY DAUGHTER LOVED THIS BOOK! WONDERFUL PICTURES BY ARTIST ROBERTA ARENSON

Rhymes are catchy things, and therefore a wonderful way to teach children just about anything. In "One, Two..." Ms. Arenson has taken some of the more well known number rhymes and combined them with her bright, beautiful and bold illustrations.

Children dance, swim and skip rope through the pages along with different animals, like the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 bees that come out of their hive. Some rhymes are very short, only 4 or 5 lines long, while others are much longer and take a page or two. Some are repetitive, like "5 green and speckled frogs/sitting on a speckled log..." which help children understand numbers by working up or down one number at a time. All of the rhymes have a wonderful song-like quality to them making them catch and fun to say or sing. Quite a lot of them would be good choices for skipping rope.

The illustrations are bold and very colorful. The book is also multicultural with children of different races and skin tones represented (this is a nice touch: too often illustrators forget to represent their characters as anything other than white-- "too many little white kids tripping merrily through the bluebells" is how a colleague of mine criticizes many picture books; this easily passed by her as representing ALL children).

The story will hold the interest of most very young children, and because of the large type and simple illustrations, it's a fine choice for lapsitting. Because the text is easy to read and often repetitive, it's also a great choice for beginning readers who are just learning to decode the written word. Lots of fun and very much recommended!