How Many Snails?: A Counting Book (Counting Books (Greenwillow Books))
PreSchool-Grade 1-- Crews' dynamic illustrations provide a lot of visual appeal to this nevertheless flawed counting book. The narrator walks to various places and wonders about the numbers of things which are to be seen. Unfortunately, several of the questions and illustrations are ambiguous, making the book frustrating for children to use without supervision. On one page when asked to count starfish, many children will count only those with five arms since this is the common starfish with which they are most familiar. Only in the next question do they find that this first counting should have included all of the creatures in the picture. On another page, trucks are to be counted, but it is unclear exactly what constitutes a "truck." Some children will not count fire engines as trucks until asked to count them specifically in later questions. There are also some yellow vehicles which could be buses, vans, or trucks depending upon individual interpretation. All this makes a book which can be confusing for independent readers, especially since there is no key to provide help or reinforcement. This may be considered for purchase and used with adult guidance. --Lori A. Janick, Parkwood Elementary School, Pasadena, Tex.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.