Carlo Likes Counting

Carlo the Giraffe

by Jessica Spanyol

Carlo likes counting everywhere and everything. He counts ice-creams in the cafe, fish in the stream and teddies in the toyshop! Everything in his colourful world has a clear label attached saying what it is and how many of them there are. Children learning to count will enjoy pointing, counting and reading the numbers through the day with Carlo, a sympathetic and likeable character. And if the counting gets frustrating, Carlo doesn't worry about it - he likes splashing in his bath, too!

Genres: Picture Books, Mathematics, Counting, Animals

32 pages, Paperback

First published July 22, 2002

About the author

Jessica Spanyol wrote and illustrated her first story, "Carlo the Giraffe Who Could Not Read," when she was a precocious six and a half years old. As she grew older, her literary ambitions gave way to artistic ones, and she began a career as a fine artist. But the adult Jessica Spanyol, it turned out, could not shake the memory of Carlo the giraffe. So thirty years after its writing, she determined to rework her original story.

As a result, Jessica Spanyol's CARLO LIKES READING retains a delightfully childlike sensibility, with minor alterations and eye-catching artwork added by author thirty years later. "The character Carlo," explains the author, "was based on a blow-up toy giraffe, and the name, 'Carlo,' my brother's best friend." Even Crackers, Carlo's cat, can be traced back to the Spanyol family pet. In CARLO LIKES READING, Carlo the giraffe reads everything he sees. And because his world is covered in labels, there's always a lot of reading to do--Carlo reads labels on the street, in the park, at the market, and even on his dad! "There's plenty here to inspire pointing and identifying action on the part of emerging readers," assures PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, while KIRKUS REVIEWS notes that "this debut is bright, well-conceived, and infectiously enthusiastic."


Carlo (and his creator) made such a splash that readers and reviewers clamored for more -- and Carlo has since starred in CARLO LIKES COUNTING, CARLO LIKES COLORS, and CARLO AND THE REALLY NICE LIBRARIAN. Recently, Jessica Spanyol introduced her readers to a new cast of characters in the picture book, GO BUGS GO!


Jessica Spanyol studied at the Bath Academy of Art, Brighton Polytechnic, and the Royal College of Art. Since then, in addition to writing the Carlo series, she has worked as a theater set designer, a fine artist, and a tutor of illustration, winning the Folio Society Illustration Award and the Painter-Stainers Award. She lives in England with her family.

Reviews

[Goshen PL Childrens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read at Storytime November 7, 2018
Theme: Counting

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not Jessica spanyol’s best work but it is fun to have so many options of things to count.

[Conny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nederlands: Carlo telt

[Ms. Madalyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too slow for storytime.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was no story to this book. I thought it would still be a good book to read to young learners. I thought it would be nice to incorporate it in learning centers for math in kindergarten. It had very nice pictures as well as a good layout.

[Kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay. It was about Carlo the giraffe doing things he enojoys all day and counting things around him. This is a good book for young children to practice counting. Other than the counting being stimulating, I was not all that impressed with the book.

[Christina Camp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for students to read and look at on their own. It is very short and easy to read and goes over numbers 1 through 10. Each page has many different objects that students can count to practice.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cute book to read one-on-one with a child. They'll love looking at the intricate pictures and counting all the items they see.

[Kyle Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carlo counts from 1-10 and each page has items on the page to match the number. Ex. Carlo counts to 1 and the page has 1-sock, 1-orange, 1-dog, etc. Good for counting to 10.