STANLEY'S NUMBERS

Learn to count with Stanley the hamster and his mole pal, Little Woo.

Simple line drawings, bright colors, and engaging animal characters make learning to count good fun in this charming board book. Stanley and Little Woo walk young readers through the numbers from one to 10 as they round up items for a picnic. Numbers and vocabulary are introduced in a series of double-page vignettes as the two friends collect a Jell-O salad, cakes, party hats, balloons, and other items for the picnic that closes the story. Admittedly, there’s not much of a plot at all, but the artwork and characters will engage budding mathematicians. The excitement of the duo as they happily plan a party for their friends is lovely to see as well. The text accompanying the climactic picnic scene asks toddlers to count the attendees. The picnic, the busiest drawing in the book, features many other items that children can count as well. Stanley’s Opposites, published concurrently, is a similarly winning vocabulary builder for young readers, contrasting “asleep” and “awake,” “in” and “out,” “open” and “closed,” “light” and “dark,” and other paired antonyms. The many unrelated contrasts in this companion volume afford even greater opportunity for whimsy and variety in the illustrations.

This and its companion should give youngsters plenty about which to babble.