ABC's & 123's - Family Storytime

 

I did this storytime back in August, but just now got around to writing it up. I haven't been writing up every storytime anymore because (1) I just don't have the time, and (2) at this point in my career I have done so many that it's becoming repetitive. So now I just write them up if it was a theme I haven't already covered multiple times, or I used new books I want to highlight.

ABC's & 123's - Preschool Storytime

I decided to do basic concepts today, and since I find it a little monotonous sometimes to do all alphabet books, or all counting books, I combined them and did one book and activity for each. We started with our welcome song, then a brief introduction, followed by our story song.

For our ABC's I wanted an alphabet book that had a little bit of a story, not just the typical "A is for Apple, B is for Ball" format because they always seem to get bored halfway through, no matter what the theme is. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is an obvious choice, but I know they have that book and the tree that goes with it because I gave it to them last year, so I wanted something they hadn't seen before. 

After reviewing several suggestions from peers, I chose The Sleepy Little Alphabet by Judy Sierra and Melissa Sweet. In this story the big letters are trying to get the little letters to bed, but they aren't cooperating. While both upper- and lowercase aren't shown on every page, they are all shown on the endpapers, and kids can always relate to trying to stall at bedtime. 

After that of course we had to sing the traditional "Alphabet Song".

There are lots of good counting books, and I used a number of them last week for my Storytime-To-Go programs, so I wanted something different this week and chose Bear Counts by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman. There is just something about the good-natured Bear and his friends that I like, and I love, love, love Jane Chapman's illustrations (did you know she also illustrates in a very different style under the pseudonym "Jack Tickle"?). 

This book only goes to five, so is better for the younger kids, but I like how it shows several groups of things for each number, the word for the number, and the numerals.

I had first planned to do a "Ten Little (somethings)" song, but when I saw this rhyme from Miss Meg's Storytime, I decided to give it a try, with slight modification:

    One, Two, How Do You Do?

      1, 2, how do you do?

     1, 2, 3, clap with me.

     1, 2, 3, 4, jump on the floor

     1, 2, 3, 4, 5, look bright and alive.

     1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, give your ice cream lots of licks.

     1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, look up to heaven.

     1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, turn around and wait.

     1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, we are feeling fine.

     1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, let's do it again!

Afterward, we practiced counting back down from 10 to 1, and blasted off like rockets! Then it was time for our closing song, followed by stickers.

How It Went 
I had a slightly larger group today, with 17 kids and according to the teachers this year's class is a handful, with lots of problems listening and following directions, which I could see a little bit of in storytime. These books would be great for some groups, but were too "quiet" for this group, that is clearly going to require books that are much more interactive to keep them focused and engaged. That's okay, every group is different and it takes 2 or 3 sessions to feel them out and figure out what works best for that particular group. And then it is likely to change 😉 They still seemed to enjoy it, even if they weren't quite as engaged as I'd like, and that is what's most important at this young age, to have as many positive associations with books and reading as possible.

1, 2, 3 Read With Me - Preschool Numbers Storytime

I skipped this theme on the Storytime Bus last year because the first time I did it, I found it rather monotonous during the course of about 25 storytimes over two weeks. But since then I've added some books that were more fun and had a bit of a story, rather than just straightforward counting books. As always, we started with a brief introduction by asking who could count to 10, 20, or 100, sometimes doing a brief counting of how many of us their were and kids vs. grownups, or boys vs girls, followed by our letter-of-the-day (Nn) and our story song.

The Books 

(Please excuse the poor quality, PicMonkey pulled a bait & switch, and now you cannot save anything unless you pay for a membership, which they don't tell you until AFTER you've spent time creating something, so I had to take a screenshot instead.)

• Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh, the hungry snake learns a lesson in greed, and the mice learn a lesson on keeping watch.
• Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin & James Dean, counts down from 4 to 0, and shows equations, also good for colors
• Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 by Bill Martin, Jr., Michael Sampson, & Lois Ehlert, counts to 20, then skip counts by tens to 100.
• Little Quack by Lauren Thompson & Derek Anderson, will Little Quack and his 4 siblings get over their fear and join Mama in the water?
• 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle. Count the animals on the zoo train & imitate their sounds, spot the mouse on each page.
• Chooky-Doodle-Doo by Jan Whiten & Sinead Hanley, how many chicks does it take to pull this worm? Counting, cooperation, and a surprise ending.
• 10 Little Ninjas by Miranda Paul & Nate Wragg, children pretend to be everything from ninjas to alligators as the parents try to get them ready for bed.
• Doggone Dogs! by Karen Beaumont & David Catrew, ten mischievous dogs lead their owner on a wild chase.
• One Blue Fish by Charles Reasoner, bold simple graphics & lift-a-flaps to work on counting, number recognition, and colors.
• Counting by David A. Carter, simple pop-up butterflies to count.
• Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton, Russell can't sleep and tries counting things to help him get to sleep.
• Ten Dirty Pigs/Ten Clean Pigs by Carol Roth & Pamela Paparone, two books in one!

The Activities

I used a few miscellanous Five- and Ten Little somethings songs and rhymes, but the one I used the most, because it had more movement and the kids really like it, is this "Ten Little Bubbles" song I made up:

Ten Little Bubbles

One little, two little, three little bubbles;

Four little, five little, six little bubbles;

Seven little, eight little, nine little bubbles;

Ten little bubbles to POP! (clap hands)

Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop those bubbles;

Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop those bubbles;

Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop those bubbles;

All the little bubbles go POP! (Clap)

Ten little, nine little, eight little bubbles;

Seven little, six little, five little bubbles;

Four little, three little, two little bubbles;

And one little bubble goes POP! (clap)

We just have pretend bubbles due to the small space we're in, but real bubbles during the middle verse would be so much more fun! I do have them use their fingers for counting, and counting down is much more difficult, so I go slower on the last verse, but it is very good practice for fine motor skills since they aren't used to doing it that way and don't have the same muscle memory, so it requires more concentration. 

When I do "Five Little" somethings, I have them repeat it, using their other hand the second time, so the non-dominant hand gets a workout, too. All the 5 & 10 little rhymes may seem monotonous, but they are really good for their fine motor skills when done this way.

We also did various counting and grouping activities, using ourselves as props, and a measuring activity I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of. We are in the middle of horse country, and in case you aren't aware, horse height is measured in terms of how many "hands" high. So I put a vertical column of cut-out handprints on the wall for measuring height. I would have the kids make predictions about who was the shortest in the class, the tallest in the class, how many hands tall they would be, etc., and then we would have them stand by the column of hands and measure in terms of hands and fingers, instead of feet and inches.

At the end, we gave everyone handprint stickers, to represent our counting fingers, and our measuring in hands activity.

How It Went

This theme worked much better than last year with the addition of a few books that had a bit of a story, or unusual things to count, and it did not seem too monotonous this time. I would say as expected, Pete the Cat was the biggest hit, but all the others worked really well, except for maybe Russell the Sheep; the kids just didn't really seem very engaged with that one. My personal favorites were Little Quack; 1, 2, 3, to the Zoo; and Mouse Count. I did have one unexpected response with Mouse Count; usually the kids are really relieved and happy the mice got away and did not get eaten by the snake, but there was one little girl who really felt sorry for the poor hungry snake not having any dinner!

Numbers & Counting - The Winter Edition

One of the ten daycares the Storytime Bus visits asked that we not do a Christmas-themed storytime per their corporate rules, so I had to come up with an alternative to use with them during the rotation I had planned Christmas for everyone else (for my thoughts on the whole holiday programming debate, see my "To Holiday, Or Not To Holiday" post). 

As it happens, this daycare had missed out on our numbers/counting theme back in September because of Labor Day, so it made sense to use that theme.  But I wanted it to still be somewhat seasonal, so instead of using the same selection of books I used then, I pulled some winter-themed counting books and put together some wintery songs/rhymes/felt sets to go with them.  I used 2-3 books and a couple of the songs and/or rhymes with each group.

The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming is a great book for this theme, and has a snowman gradually becoming fully accessorized over ten days.  I like how it not only counts up from 1 to 10, but is one of the few books that has the ordinal numbers from first through tenth as well.  And you can either read it, or sing it to the familiar tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

Ten On The Sled by Kim Norman and Liza Woodruff has 10 animal friends sledding down the hill, and counts down from 10 to 1 as they fall off one by one.  This is another book that can either be read or sung, using the tune from a song from my childhood, "Ten In The Bed". 

Snowbaby Could Not Sleep by Kara LaReau and Jim Ishikawa is a story about a little snowbaby who "could not, would not sleep".  This is not actually a counting story per se, and only refers to counting snowflakes without actually showing the counting.  But, I really wanted to have at least one book that had a real story, and while the story does not show the actual counting, it is easy enough to pause and count the snowflakes that are on the next page.  The kids can also join in with the repeating "But Snowbaby could not, would not sleep" line.

Snowboy 1, 2, 3 by Joe and Wendy Wahman starts with two children walking through the countryside, unaware of the adventures of the snowboy and his woodland friends going on behind them.  This one counts from 1 to 10, and then back down to 1, and has rhyme and bright illustrations.

Millions of Snowflakes by Mary McKenna Sidals and Elizabeth Sayles is a sweet little story about a child playing outside in the snow and catching snowflakes.  It only counts from 1 to 5, and it is a little small with pastel illustrations, but I like the text and the pretty snowflakes of different patterns.  There are also movements the kids could act out as you read.  This one I thought would be good for the younger kids.

I already had a "Five Little Snowmen" rhyme and magnetic set I had made last year, and I found a couple of "Five Little Snowflakes" rhymes, one that counts up and one that counts down, and made up a simple "Ten Little Snowflakes" song.  Then I cut out some felt snowflakes to go with them.  Since I have shown these in recent posts, I'm not going to write them out again; but you can follow the links to get all the details.  I also made up a "Ten Little Snowballs" song:

One little, two little, three little snowballs.

Four little, five little, six little snowballs.

Seven little, eight little, nine little snowballs.

Ten little snowballs to throw!

Let's roll and pack and throw some snowballs,

Roll and pack and throw some snowballs,

Roll and pack and throw some snowballs.

Let's have a snowball fight!

Ten little, nine little, eight little snowballs.

Seven little, six little, five little snowballs.

Four little, three little, two little snowballs.

One snowball left to throw!

 

How It Went 

The weather decided not to be co-operative with my theme, being 60 and rainy following a 70 degree weekend (normal here would be in the 40's!), but otherwise everything went fine. I think the favorite books for the kids were Snowbaby Could Not Sleep, because it had an actual story and a cute snowdoggie; and Ten In A Sled, because it was silly and had lots of different animals.  They did fine with the others, though were a little confused by some of the unconventional snowman parts in On The First Day Of Winter.  In their minds, a carrot is the ONLY acceptable nose for a snowman.

Of the songs and activities, they really had fun with the "Ten Little Snowballs" song and pretending to have a snowball fight (I was so mad at myself for forgetting to bring our soft foam pretend snowballs to throw), and really liked the "Five Little Snowmen".  First they all wanted to pick out which snowman they liked best, then they really got into the melting idea and thought it was silly.  Afterward, I told them I also knew a way to turn it into a game, and had them stand in a circle while I walked around behind them as the "Sun" while we said the rhyme.  Then, when we got to the part about melting, I would tap one or two of them on the shoulder to tell them it was their time to melt.  They LOVED playing this and the suspense of who would have to melt each time! 

 

There was a new little girl in the class who spoke no English.  She did have trouble paying attention to the stories, but when we did the snowman activities with motions, she started copying what we did.  While I'm not sure how much she understood about what we were doing when we did the game version, she clearly appreciated the silliness of melting and really seemed to enjoy it.  Despite the language barrier, she seems very well-adjusted and completely comfortable and happy to be there.  Her teacher said the child's mom stayed with her the first day to ease her transition.  That is, until the little girl asked her, "Why are you still here?" and told her to go on home! 

This winter edition of the counting theme proved to be more fun than the general one!

Flannel Friday - Snowflakes

I love snowflakes!  I think they are so pretty; I love to decorate with cutout snowflakes in the winter, and I've always wanted to make a snowflake wedding cake, but never got the chance (I used to have a wedding cake business once upon a time).  But, don't let me catch you with anything but proper 6-pointed snowflakes!

These are super easy to make with an Ellison die-cut machine.  I used sparkle-felt, though it's not as sparkly as I'd like and I don't think the sparkle shows up in the picture.  There are sparkle craft foam sheets and glitter paper (in the scrapbooking section) that are REALLY sparkly, too.  You could dress them up with glitter glue as well [if anyone knows of a glitter glue that actually comes out in a nice, neat line, PLEASE tell me in the comments!].  I made up a simple counting song to go with them:

(This is just a small board I rigged up at home from an old
flannel pillowcase; the one I use at work is much bigger.)

"Ten Little Snowflakes"

One little, two little, three little snowflakes.

Four little, five little, six little snowflakes.

Seven little, eight little, nine little snowflakes.

Ten little snowflakes fall.

They are falling all around us.

They are falling all around us.

They are falling all around us.

Millions of snowflakes fall!

Ten little, nine little, eight little snowflakes.

Seven little, six little, five little snowflakes.

Four little, three little, two little snowflakes.

And one little snowflake falls.

 

I put the snowflakes on the board one by one as we sing, and everyone else counts up with their fingers. [ If you have the time and inclination, you could also cut out a whole lot of lightweight paper snowflakes and toss them over the kids when you get to the "millions of snowflakes fall" line.]  Then remove the snowflakes from the board as you sing the last verse.

 

"Five Little Snowflakes"

 

I also found two "Five Little Snowflake" rhymes at Bussongs.com.  One counts up from one to five, and the other counts down from five to one.  You can do one, both, or mash them up together like I did into one long poem that first counts up, then down. Again, I put the snowflakes on, then take them off, one by one as we say the rhyme, and everyone else uses their fingers and we act out the motions.

 

"Five Little Snowflakes"

 

One little snowflake with nothing to do.

Along came another and then there were two.

Two little snowflakes laughing with glee.

Along came another, and then there were three.

Three little snowflakes looking for some more.

Along came another, and then there were four.

Four little snowflakes dancing as though alive.

Along came another, and then there were five.

Five little snowflakes flew round and round.

One got caught by the wind and went floating down.

Four little snowflakes flew round and round.

One got caught by the wind and went floating down.

Three little snowflakes flew round and round.

One got caught by the wind and went floating down.

Two little snowflakes flew round and round.

One got caught by the wind and went floating down.

One little snowflake flew round and round.

Until it got caught by the wind and went floating down.

 

I do realize the first part is different for each stanza, while in the second part the number is the only thing that changes.  At first I thought about finding another count-down rhyme with stanzas that change each time, but then I decided the kids would have a much easier time joining in on the more repetitive one, so I decided to keep it as is.

 

And as a bonus, a link to Snowcrystals.com, a site by snowflake expert Kenneth G. Libbrecht, with some *amazing* photographs of real snowflakes, along with the science behind how they form, videos of the growth of lab-created snowflakes, and snowflake books.  If you're ambitious enough, you can make patterns for your snowflake cutouts based on some of these.

 

To see more Flannel Friday posts from other bloggers, go to this week's Flannel Friday Round-Up hosted by Lisa at "Libraryland", or visit the Flannel Friday Pinterest board for tons of inspiration.  For more information about Flannel Friday and how to participate, visit the Flannel Friday site.

1, 2, 3....Count With Me - Outreach Storytime

This week on the bus we did numbers and counting, and used the following books at one time or another, though just 2 or 3 with any given group:

Doggone Dogs! by Karen Beaumont is a little on the longer side, but very funny as a pack of dogs get into all kinds of trouble.  Note:  there is a mention of poop.

Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh shows our heroic mice one again, this time outsmarting a snake who plans to have them for his dinner.

Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton is about a poor little sheep who can't get to sleep.

Ten Dirty Pigs by Carol Roth is a reversible book.  One side shows the dirty pigs one by one getting into the tub, the second part shows the 10 now clean pigs getting out of the bath and getting dressed, only to get dirty all over again.

One Blue Fish by Charles Reasoner is a lift-the-flap counting book that also shows colors, a good tie-in to last week's theme, and good for younger kids.

1, 2, 3 To The Zoo by Eric Carle counts up to 10 by showing train cars full of animals on their way to their new home in the zoo.  Charming illustrations, and the kids enjoy making the appropriate animal sounds/motions.  See if they notice the mouse on each page.

Soup For One by Ethan Long shows flies coming in the window one by one to enjoy a bowl of soup.  Observant kids will spot a sneaky spider lurking about, but the ending has a bit of a twist.

Ten Little Apples by Natalia Vasquez is an illustrated version of a classic rhyme about the wind blowing apples down, with a turn-the-dial feature.

One To Ten and Back Again  by Betty Ann Schwartz is another reversible book with an interesting pull-through ribbon feature I've never seen before.  The novelty feature will interest kids, but the pictures on the ribbons are tiny.

We used a number of different songs, rhymes, activities as this theme could get monotonous.  The songs and rhymes we used were:

          "Sally the Camel"

          Sally the camel has 5 humps,

          Sally the camel has 5 humps,

          Sally the camel has 5 humps,

          So Ride, Sally, Ride.

          Count down to Zero, and end with "...because Sally is a horse!"

          "Ten Little Bubbles"

          1 little, 2 little, 3 little bubbles.

          4 little, 5 little, 6 little bubbles.

          7 little, 8 little, 9 little bubbles.

          10 little bubbles to pop!

          Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop those bubbles.

          Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop those bubbles.

          Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop those bubbles.

         10 little bubbles to pop!

          Show fingers to count, then clap to pretend to pop bubbles, or use real bubbles.

           "Five Elephants In The Bathtub"

          One elephant in the bathtub, going for a swim.      (make swimming motions)

          Knock, knock.   (clap twice)       Splash, splash.     (smack legs)

          Come on in!                                                            (use hand gesture for "come on")

          Count up to five, and end with "...and they all fell in!"

 

 

          "Here Is The Beehive"

           Here is the beehive.                         (hold up fist)

          Where are the bees?                       (hold hand questioningly)

          Hidden away, where nobody sees.

          Watch them as they come out of the hive:

          One, two, three, four, five!           (hold up fingers one by one)

          BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

I used my finger puppet glove I made using printables from Leah at Sunflower Storytime, while my partner showed the kids how to do the hand/finger motions.
 

We also did additional activities such as counting all the people on the bus, then comparing children versus adults, boys versus girls, various items; estimating how many hands tall they were, then measuring (we are in horse country, after all), pointing out the different numbers on the walls, etc.

How It Went

To be honest, this was my least favorite storytime theme of all time.  With the exception of colors, I generally find strict concept-based themes to be too boring and monotonous anyway, but especially this one.  I wasn't too pleased with the selection of books in the kit.  They were okay individually, but they were almost all counting books with no real story, so as a collection it was just too repetitive and too much of the same things.  I tried to find some books with more of a story, but didn't have much luck.  The first day of the theme was the worst; only one of the 5 classes we had showed much interest or engagement. 

However, the rest of the week was a little better and some of the books did well with other groups. They loved the hijinks of the dogs in Doggone Dogs!, and of course the mention of poop is always a hit with the boys in particular.  Russell the Sheep was also well received, as was Mouse Count and 1, 2, 3 To The Zoo.  One Blue Fish also fared pretty well, even with the older kids.  The remaining books we used were okay, but did not induce as much enthusiasm.  Soup For One was hit and miss, with some groups being very observant and noticing the sneaky spider right away and appreciating the humor, but others completely missed it and therefore found the story boring.

Of the activities, "Sally the Camel" was a big miss.  I was told it was always a big hit and kids loved it, so I had to try it.  Well, they didn't mind singing it, but NO ONE got the joke, except for the teachers, and a number of kids didn't even know what a camel was.  No laughs at all, I could hear the crickets chirping.  So after the first day I searched for some more fun songs with actions.  The "Ten Little Bubbles" song was a hit, and would be even more fun if you had enough room to use real bubbles, and the "Beehive" rhyme is so short and simple, but the kids always love it when you have the finger-puppets to "buzz" them all with; lots of giggles and requests to repeat for both of them.  Of course there are any number of "5 Little..." and "10 Little..." rhymes and songs that you could use as well.

Adding the various counting, sorting, grouping and comparing more or less than activities break up the monotony and keep the kids involved as well.  If you want to try doing a numbers/counting theme, I strongly recommend you develop it more as a STEM-type program, rather than a traditional storytime, with fewer books and more activities.  Personally, I'd rather simply include counting books here and there in other themes rather than do a whole storytime on counting. 

New Picture Books

I grabbed a handful of books off the new shelf to look over, somewhat at random, with mixed results:

Feet Go To Sleep by Barbara Bottner, illustrated by Maggie Smith.  Ages 3-7.  Knopf Books for Young Readers, May, 2015.  32 pages.

Summary - It's bedtime for Fiona, but after an exciting day at the beach, she is not quite ready to settle down and go to sleep.  She begins to try to relax her body, starting with her toes, as she recounts all the fun she had.  Bit by bit, she relaxes until finally she is able to drift off to sleep.

Review - The illustrations are nice, and it would make a decent enough bedtime story or story about beach fun, but nothing really makes it standout to me.  A decent book, but not a must read.

Vegetables in Underwear by Jared Chapman.  Ages 2-5.  Harry N Abrams, April, 2015.  30 pages.

Summary - Vegetables in underwear: big, small, old, new, dirty, clean, etc.  And that's it.

Review - First let me say I really do have a sense of humor and can enjoy a good underwear or poop joke with the best of them, but I'm just not feeling this book.  It seems like the author just decided "Oh, kids like underwear jokes, lets just throw together a book with the word underwear on each page.  Let's see, who should wear the underwear?  I know, vegetables!"  It just seems totally random and gratuitous.  There are much better books out there with underwear themes, in my opinion, such as Polar Bear's Underwear by Tupera Tupera, The Underpants Zoo by Brian Sendelbach, and Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman.

Bear and Duck by Katy Hudson.  Ages 4-8.  HarperCollins, May, 2015.  32 pages.

Summary - Bear was tired of being a bear.  He didn't like sleeping all winter, being stung by bees, and his fur was hot.  He spies a seemingly happy and carefree duck family and decides to be a duck instead.  Needless to say, this doesn't work out as he had hoped.  In the end his is still a bear, but has made a good friend.

Review - This is a cute story with lovely illustrations about trying to fit in and ultimately learning to be comfortable in your own skin that young kids will enjoy.  It also sends a subtle message about friendship and self-acceptance.  Sweet, with a little gently humor.

Under A Pig Tree by Margie Palatini, illustrated by Chuck Groenink.  Ages 4-8.  Harry N. Abrams, April, 2015. 40 pages.

Summary - The author has written a no-nonsense factual book about the history of the fig.  Unfortunately, the publisher made a small typo and "fig" has been replaced by "pig" throughout the entire book.  Even worse, the publisher doesn't feel such a small mistake (after all, it's only 1 letter) warrants correction and plans to publish as is.  This results in a hilarious exchange of notes between the two, supplemented by the author's hand-drawn corrections to the art-work.

Review - I thought this book was funny and clever, though I feel the suggested age range is a little low.  I doubt most 4 year olds would appreciate the sophisticated humor, plays on words, and sarcasm, but older kids and adults would.  My favorite part was the list of "Also available" books at the end, with such gems as:  The Apes of Wrath, A Clockwork Orangutan, Hamadeus, and A Tale of Two Piggies.  I think this would be a great read-aloud with older kids, maybe 1st-3rd graders.

Bear Counts by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman.  Ages 3-7.  Margaret K. McElderry Books, May, 2015.  32 pages.

Summary - Lovable Bear is back with his friends, counting from one to five.

Review - I love Karma Wilson's Bear books, and I was a little afraid this one would be a disappointing afterthought as sometimes happens when publishers try to milk everything they can out of a successful series, but I was pleasantly surprised.  Bear Counts has a similar rhythm and cadence as the other Bear books and Jane Chapman's illustrations are as charming as always.  A nice counting book for the younger kids, especially if they are already fans.