What do you think?
Rate this book
Cat Count
A rhyming, cat-counting extravaganza, ending with a big surprise!
"I have one cat,
A fat cat, a fun cat.
I have one cat . . .
My sister has two."
Young readers will chuckle with delight as they count the cats on each rhyming page—then, in both words and numerals, add their accumulated numbers at the end of the book.
"I have one cat,
A fat cat, a fun cat.
I have one cat . . .
My sister has two."
Young readers will chuckle with delight as they count the cats on each rhyming page—then, in both words and numerals, add their accumulated numbers at the end of the book.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1981
About the author
Betsy Lewin
135 books38 followersBetsy Lewin grew up in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. She always loved to draw and can’t remember wanting to be anything but an artist. Her mother, a kindergarten teacher, is responsible for her love of children’s books. She read to Betsy and her brother every night: Winnie the Pooh, The Adventures of Babar, Uncle Remus, and all the fairy tale books. The illustrators A.B. Frost and Ernest Shepard were among her earliest heroes. Later on when she started illustrating for children, Betsy realized how strongly she’d been influenced by James Stevenson and Quentin Blake.
After graduating from Pratt Institute where she studied illustration, Betsy designed greeting cards. Then she began to write and illustrate stories for children’s magazines. When an editor at Dodd, Mead & Company asked her to expand one of those stories into a picture book, Betsy says, “I jumped at the chance. I’ve been doing picture books ever since and loving every moment.”
Betsy’s art is usually humorous, drawn in pen or brush with watercolor washes, as in Click, Clack, Moo; Cows That Type, but she also paints in a naturalistic style as in Pool. Gorilla Walk is her first collaboration with her husband Ted and is about their trek to see the mountain gorillas in Uganda. This was followed by five more collaborations; Elephant Quest, set in the Okavango Delta, Top To Bottom Down Under, about their adventures in Australia, Horse Song; A Story of the Naadam, set in Mongolia, Balarama; A Royal Elephant, set in India, and Patrol, about the puffins of Iceland.
Many of Betsy’s books have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller List and she has garnered many awards including a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators, and a Caldecott Honor for Click, Clack, Moo; Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin.
When not at work on their books, Ted and Betsy love to travel to exotic places around the world gathering material for new books. At home each of them has a studio in their brownstone house in Brooklyn. Besides the usual clutter of pencils and pens, paint tubes and brushes, drawing paper and, of course, books, they surround themselves with mementos of their travels: peacock feathers from India, Herero dolls from Botswana, Galimoto toys from Namibia and Brazil, digeridoos from Australia, postcards and snapshots, and countless stones and seashells and bits of cloth that transport them back to the lands they visited. Their cat, Sophie, can usually be found napping on their drawing table.
Betsy was awarded a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators Original Art show for Click, Clack, Moo; Cows That Type, and an Honor for the first ever Ted Geisel Award given by the ALA for the book she illustrated, Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa.
In 2015, Ted and Betsy Lewin were inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame.
After graduating from Pratt Institute where she studied illustration, Betsy designed greeting cards. Then she began to write and illustrate stories for children’s magazines. When an editor at Dodd, Mead & Company asked her to expand one of those stories into a picture book, Betsy says, “I jumped at the chance. I’ve been doing picture books ever since and loving every moment.”
Betsy’s art is usually humorous, drawn in pen or brush with watercolor washes, as in Click, Clack, Moo; Cows That Type, but she also paints in a naturalistic style as in Pool. Gorilla Walk is her first collaboration with her husband Ted and is about their trek to see the mountain gorillas in Uganda. This was followed by five more collaborations; Elephant Quest, set in the Okavango Delta, Top To Bottom Down Under, about their adventures in Australia, Horse Song; A Story of the Naadam, set in Mongolia, Balarama; A Royal Elephant, set in India, and Patrol, about the puffins of Iceland.
Many of Betsy’s books have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller List and she has garnered many awards including a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators, and a Caldecott Honor for Click, Clack, Moo; Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin.
When not at work on their books, Ted and Betsy love to travel to exotic places around the world gathering material for new books. At home each of them has a studio in their brownstone house in Brooklyn. Besides the usual clutter of pencils and pens, paint tubes and brushes, drawing paper and, of course, books, they surround themselves with mementos of their travels: peacock feathers from India, Herero dolls from Botswana, Galimoto toys from Namibia and Brazil, digeridoos from Australia, postcards and snapshots, and countless stones and seashells and bits of cloth that transport them back to the lands they visited. Their cat, Sophie, can usually be found napping on their drawing table.
Betsy was awarded a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators Original Art show for Click, Clack, Moo; Cows That Type, and an Honor for the first ever Ted Geisel Award given by the ALA for the book she illustrated, Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa.
In 2015, Ted and Betsy Lewin were inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 17, 2017
Rhythm and rhyme make this a fun counting book.
April 12, 2008
A cute and simple book that makes counting fun. Although when it gets to the pages where it adds all the cats together it was a little tedious for my 2 year old.
April 12, 2010
I know...maybe I shouldn't give a counting book 4 stars, but it was really cute and the rhythm was terrific!
November 21, 2011
Excellent for addition. In the book, cats keep showing up and the number of cats keep adding to larger sums.
March 26, 2024
Publisher : Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); First Edition (April 1, 2003)
ISBN-10 : 0805067477
This book is full of colorful images and great rhymes. This book allows young readers may practically count the cats to get the proper answers to the additional problems in the text by using delightful cartoon visuals. For younger students, they will be able to use the pictures to see how many cats have appeared. This book is great for younger grades during a math lesson about addition.
ISBN-10 : 0805067477
This book is full of colorful images and great rhymes. This book allows young readers may practically count the cats to get the proper answers to the additional problems in the text by using delightful cartoon visuals. For younger students, they will be able to use the pictures to see how many cats have appeared. This book is great for younger grades during a math lesson about addition.
February 19, 2026
Really good book to introduce children to poetry in a fun and silly way!
August 22, 2012
Delightful cartoon illustrations provide a chance for young readers to literally count the cats to come up with the correct answers to the addition problems posed in the text, but no child young enough to enjoy the pictures can add up to fifty-five! Most counting books like this end at the number ten for a reason. Maybe a truly advanced kindergartner would enjoy the math portion of the text; other young readers may be able to enjoy the accumulation of amusingly different types of cats in the illustrations without understanding the counting or the math.
August 26, 2010
This book is about how many cats there are. One thing that I really like about this book is the fact that the students can use the picture to help them come up with the correct number. There are the correct number of cats on each page that goes along with the number that the page is describing.
August 19, 2014
The illustrations in this book, of course, are wonderful, but for a concept book, the text was also very well done.
I liked that not only was it a counting book, it was also an early addition book. And there even was a hint of a story to it.
I liked that not only was it a counting book, it was also an early addition book. And there even was a hint of a story to it.
August 18, 2009
I thought this was a cute story to introduce how easy it is to add. The concept of math and reading makes the learning effortless and fun!
February 4, 2011
not a dull counting book. features attractive and funny illustrations of cats, as well as great vocabulary and catchy phrases. my daughter loves it!
April 25, 2015
I see what the author was trying to accomplish, but it simply felt off to me. The illustrations didn't help to support it either.
April 17, 2014
Cute cats and math--a great combination.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews