Babar's Counting Book

Babar

by Laurent de Brunhoff

Babar's children, Flora, Pom, and Alexander, go for a walk and count all of the interesting things they see, pleasing their father so much that he teaches them to count all the way to twenty.

Genres: Childrens, Animals, Picture Books

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Laurent de Brunhoff est un auteur et illustrateur français.

Laurent De Brunhoff has kept the spirit of Babar and his family alive for over 50 years. Babar was created by Laurent's mother as a bedtime story, and was first illustrated by Laurent's father, Jean de Brunhoff.

After his father's death, Laurent continued to create over 30 Babar stories.

Laurent de Brunhoff lived in Connecticut with his wife, writer Phyllis Rose.

Reviews

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Babar’s elephant children teach preschoolers to count to 20.

Intended age group: 3-5

There comes a time when your pride in the fact that your preschooler can count to 10 turns to panic, when you realize she can count no further. Enter Babar’s Counting Book to the rescue. It is one of a minority of counting books that goes all the way up to 20. It is also exceptional in that it demonstrates how to display the numbers up to 10 on your hands: as the elephant children count the animals and vehicles they encounter in their walk, Zephir the monkey holds up the appropriate number of fingers. This skill helps young children understand rudimentary math concepts. Each page in this book presents bold, cheerful and appealing pictures that provide opportunities for counting practice in a way that seems more like play than learning. At the end of the book, Babar presents the reader with a royal certificate as a reward for learning to count to 20.

In Horn Book (Fall, 2003), the reviewer commented that the story was boring, but liked the clear pictures that were “easy to count”, and thought that children would enjoy the characters and the certificate. This review was less than enthusiastic, and might deter people from buying a useful book. A Publisher’s Weekly (2/24/03) review was more or less just a note that the book had been republished. The reviewer seemed to like the book, since he said that the counting “fun” extends to 20 objects, but the review didn’t offer much in the way of description of the book’s usefulness.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pleasant little counting book that goes up to 20, which is a bonus. There's isn't much of a story to speak of, but that's okay. Finding and counting all the objects on the pages is good enough for this sort of book. And the big royal certificate at the end was pretty awesome. Had to make a photocopy for my kiddos. :)

[Aramis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute number leaning book with classic Babar characters. Has many different animals that the little one gets to count. It has simple questions and directions like "Can you count to 10." and "Then Babar showed the children how to count to 20. You count too." It also has simple addition at the end of the book.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

While many people don't seem to care for Babar, I enjoyed the illustrations and reading them aloud to my son.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good for teaching counting up to 20.