Splash!: A Humorous Picture Book About Pond Animals with Interactive Questions for Kids

by Ann Jonas

Splash goes the cat! Splash goes the dog! Who's jumping in the pond? Falling in and crawling out, how many animals can you count?

Genres: Picture Books, Mathematics, Animals, Counting, Childrens, Storytime, Number

32 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 1995

Reviews

[Jason Anthony]

No plot or characters to speak of, but excellent for reinforcing basic counting skills with my 3-year-old.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Library book!
A simple little book that’s set during summertime and boosts counting and math skills. My daughter especially loved the dog.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the best of the ten I chose for Alena this week. I enjoyed counting the creatures that splashed in and out of the pond. It could be used as a simple introduction to addition and subtraction.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A counting book, not much story

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great counting book.

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

A girl has a pond in her back yard. It has some fish in it, a turtle and frogs nearby, and her dog and cat and herself that are sometimes in and sometimes out depending on what’s going on. After a ruckus caused by the cat and dog, a series of events happen, and she and the creatures get in and out of the pond, readers are asking to count how many are in the pond at certain moments.

A creative counting book involving a very busy pond in the back yard. The challenge to count how many are in the pond is genuinely challenging at some moments because of all the activity in the illustrations.

[Annalisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book would be good for students that are early learning. This is because the book was about different figures jumping in the pond and the questions of how many people are left on land or in the water. I think I would use this in the classroom to help students with their math knowledge in a fun way. I liked how the math portion was included into the text of the book so that it's prompted to know questions to get students to think.

[Kaci Beesecker]

A book that allows children to count what is in the pond. The storyline is different things happening to the animals outside the pond that make the animals jump in, and at the end of each time an animal falls in or jumps out, the question asked is how many are in my pond.

This book would be good to teach young students how to count. Going through the book as a read-aloud and having the students count in between each page.

[Molly Cluff (Library!) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bunch of animals/fish spend time hopping in and out of the water, and then the text prompts you to count how many animals are in the water now. Lots of different arrangements of animals, but not much besides that.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love so many things about this book --- the big, splashes of color in the illustrations, the common animals on all the pages, the many different ways to get to the answer, and the way the girl interacts with the animals. It's a wonderful book to have fun with numbers with your favorite child.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great storyline which encourages students to count.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book to use for beginning addition & subtraction.

[Esther May · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great math concept book.

[frogfairie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Displays a pond and very creatures on each page, but they keep jumping in and out of the pond. Asks kids to count how many things are in the pond; a good introduction to addition and subtraction.

[Terresa Wellborn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Themes: water, animals
Ages: toddler-1st grade

[Vanessa Becerra]

A frog, dog, and a person fell in the pond! Can anyone keep the count of who has fallen in? As the owner, dog, and frog fall in count how many are in the pond.

[L.A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe good for counting, but I had addition and subtraction on the brain. Your child has to want to do the math while reading though 😂

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.3 stars

The colors are incredibly bright and vibrant. I would rate
the artwork as 4.3 out of 5.

No, there isn't much of a plot. But it would be a good
introduction to basic counting skills and basic animal
recognition.

Children in general would really enjoy it.

[Kristin Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Splash! is such a great book. It is very engaging for children and very colorful with the illustrations. This book is a great book to teach children counting, adding, and subtracting. This book made me laugh when everyone fell into the pond. The vocabulary was simple for children to understand. I would read this to 3-5 year olds.

[Kandolo Baze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to teach children about counting method. The illustration went nicely with the writing. Easy for children to get involve in the story by adding or subtracting. The repetitive words will help student with their vocabulary.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy the work of Anne Jonas... "Round Trip" being one of my all-time favorite books. Her books are so clever, appearing simplistic, based on the text, but revealing much more complex concepts upon digging in, and "Splash" is no exception. This book featured higher-level math concepts for beginning readers, and allowed listeners to get involved in the story, either by counting or opting to the follow the story word-problem, adding and subtracting the animals as they enter and exit the pond. Excellent!

[Leeanna Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a little girl who has a pond in her backyard and she is telling the reader what all is in her pond. Some fall in, some jump out, some accidentally end up in the pond. After each page, she asks how many are in the pond.

I loved this book, the illustrations went nicely with the writing and really added to the story.

I would use this to teach my students counting methods and addition in their heads.

[Brenda Quinones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book. Short and simple. Great vibrant illustrations that goes along with the story. Great to introduce children to count and add new vocabulary words.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun and colorful book that helps teach children about simple addition and subtraction. Younger children will love counting the creatures in the pond and older children may enjoy the challenge of doing the simple math problems. The repetition got a little old for me, but our girls really liked it. Cute illustrations with fun fish, frogs, turtles and pets.

[Hatka Kecalovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book Splash! by Ann Jonas uses a variety of animals to address the concept of counting. The book can be used as a resourse for lessons on adding and subtracting. The book can also be used for lessons on characteristics of animals. The book can also be used for lessons on verbs and antonyms. This book can be used in Pre-K to 2 grade classrooms.

[Mikailah Shackleford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book because it is educational and has really cute illistrations. There are pictures of fish, frogs, turtles and other pets that are jumping into a pond. The book has the reader do math problems that involve adding and subtracting. The math problems are not too hard and kids would enjoy counting the number of pets in the pictures and also doing the problems.

[Annie Twohy]

Splash! is a book that encompasses basic addition and subtraction principles as varying animals enter and leave the pond. This book offers students real life applications to addition and subtraction in a fun, and engaging way; great for kindergarten or first grade. The varying illustrations of animals offer room for discussion in expansion of a math lesson as well.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This title copyrighted in 1995 making it almost twenty five years old is timeless visual entertainment. The premise is a child has a pond in their back yard with fish, frogs and a turtle as well as a large dog. Lots of jumping in and out of this pond some of the creatures are happy about that and some are not.
I liked this so much that I purchased a 24 year old title for a library today!

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one works well for several different age levels. Kids who are old enough to count get a kick out of helping count all the animals in the pond, and older kids get into using addition and subtraction to figure out how many animals are in the pond as creatures jump in and out on each page.