123 Follow Me!

You pick up a long, chunky, sturdy book in soft plain colours, and it feels good. Cut away numbers are peeping out, stretching along from a yellow one to something red at the end. The pages beg to be opened. The first page reveals the full, yellow number one, the word ‘one’, and a yellow chick. Orange two peeps out: turn to reveal it, the word, and the chick being chased by a hen. Must grasp the bottom of the two to find turquoise three, and find the ginger tom chasing the hen and the chick. The pictures get more frantic as we go along, feathers flying, animals looking anxiously behind them as the chase gets longer. Then, whoa! at nine the accumulation of animals stop and fall over each other, as someone shouts BOO! At ten they turn tail and run, not seeing the little mouse with the megaphone. This book is delicious, and there is so much to talk about in it. The pictures of the animals are complex and interesting, and not straightforward to count.