One, Two, Three, Oops!

by Michael Coleman, Gwyneth Williamson

Mr and Mrs Rabbit have a very big family - so big that Mr Rabbit doesn't even know how many baby rabbits there are. "I think, I'll count them", he says. "one, two, three - oops! Oh, noggin-sploggin!", he exclaims, as all the babies he counts run away. And so it goes on - until Mrs Rabbit thinks of a perfect way to count their large family. But that isn't the end of it all!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Counting

Paperback

First published October 30, 1998

About the author

Coleman was born in Forest Gate, a suburb in east London. Not long after he was born, his family moved a few miles east to Barking. At the time of his arrival, the area was just starting to recover from the damage it had received during World War II. He lived in a house on Bevan Avenue, named after Aneurin Bevan the architect of the National Health Service. He lived in that estate for 20 years. The area helped develop Coleman's love of sport due to the oblong shaped lanes of grass leading up the estate, which could be used as mini-stadiums. He pretended to play at various sporting events of the time, e.g. the Melbourne Olympics of 1956, the soccer Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, and the games at Lords Cricket ground. He still has medals he won for being school champion in the 100m sprint and the long jump. As said by Coleman himself "My information series Foul Football tries to convey some of the magic I felt about the game of soccer by relating the weird and wonderful history of the game and the personalities it has seen over the years. On the fiction side, my series about a junior soccer team called Angels FC tries to bring out the humour and sheer fun that you’ll find at the heart of the game when it’s played by youngsters who don’t even know how to spell the word cynicism." Coleman had his first children’s book published when he was 46 years of age. He has also said: "I didn't [want to become a writer] at first. I used to teach computer science at a university and my first book was a boring one about computers. I livened it up by putting a few jokes in. At the end I thought I'd try writing a few more things, but this time forgetting about the computers and concentrating on the jokes. After lots of failures I realised that youngsters enjoy jokes more than adults and started writing for them. Eighty books later, I'm still doing it...I write both fact and fiction. The Foul Football series are favourite fact books, simply because they're about football. On the fiction side, I'm just finishing a trilogy called The Bearkingdom. They're dark and scary, quite different to anything I've written before."

Reviews

[Mara Rhodes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a father bunny trying to count his (20+) baby bunnies and continually losing count because they won't stay still.

3 topic ideas:
Counting, numbers
Problem-solving
Repetition

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Bunny tries to count all their children, but they keep moving and he loses count. Finally, he manages to get them all to sleep after a busy day — and that’s when he can count them.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun counting book and like the expanding non swearing words.

[Beth Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

age 3-6 reading age. Really useful book for learning to count to 10, makes it engaging. Mr rabbit struggles to count all his children!

[Poppy Thorpe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sophia enjoyed this book and laughed at the idea of Daddy rabbit not knowing how many children he has!

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I invited the group to say with me, "one, two, three, OOPS" each time father bunny attempts to count his many children. Each time he looses count he utters rhyming made-up words such as "noggin-sploggin", "Boodle-doodle", "grizzly-wizzly", "sniffy-whiffy", "jingle-bingle", "fuddle-duddle", or "jungle-bungle". The little ones LOVE the "oops" word and some giggle irresistably every time it's said.

[Kelly Thevenot · Rating 4 out of 5]

One, Two, Three, Oops is a great childrens book that is funny. It is another children's book that scaffolds repeating number's over and over so the children can remember and after a while be able to count the bunnies. You could ask the children questions about what they think happens next, when the papa bunny cant count his baby bunnies. He finally gets them all counted when they all fall asleep until he is greated with another surprise!

[Ciera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked that this book scaffolds repeating number's over and over so the children can remember and after a while be able to count the bunnies. It is a great way to keep children entertained and interactive with the book, and can get just as excited when the father rabbitt has counted all his baby bunnies.

[Ashley Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for learning counting for preschoolers but they won't know they're learning to count because it's a cute story about a daddy bunny trying to count his little ones ;)