Eric the Red

Eric the bear loves numbers. His job at the bank is to count the money and invent a secret code for the safe. His redness causes comment, but Erica, who also loves numbers, befriends him. The bank is raided by two huge and menacing polar bears. ‘Freeze!’ they shout. Nice. Eric and Erica outwit the robber bears, and all is well. Eric and Erica go off to do clever work with numbers together. Throughout the book there are things to count and numbers to explore. There are numbers for everyone: you can count two yellow lorries, or money bags showing thousands of pounds. The use of language is nicely numerical: ‘I’ll have this little bear for elevenses!’, ‘Millions of numbers whirled round in his head’, ‘Twice as much fun’. It’s a great book for making friends with maths.