One Gorilla: A Counting Book
PreSchool-Grade 1-- In this beautifully illustrated counting book, a narrator lists beloved things, including a gorilla, butterflies, pandas, etc. To imagine a child daydreaming about different animals, picturing them in their various habitats, will conjure up a good idea of what this picture book is like. The illustrations, delicately drawn but vividly colored, have a misty quality to them that adds to the air of fantasy. A whimsical gorilla stands in for the narrator, journeying through home, fields, forests, the sea, and even snowy China, counting off a new collection of animals along the way. The pictures delightfully capture the personality of each animal. Searching out the creatures in each two-page spread is enjoyable and moderately challenging. Since the illustrations leave unobtrusive white spaces for the text, the words stand out crisply and are easy to read. A major flaw in the design, however, is that not enough space is allowed in the illustrations for binding. The transition between some pages is choppy (the two parts do not meet correctly), and in one case a bird that is supposed to be counted is almost swallowed up into the gutter. Nevertheless, the technical distractions are not serious enough to outweigh the positive aspects of this appealing book. --Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, County of Henrico Public Library--Fairfield Area Library, Richmond, VACopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.