Author Aaron Murray looks at some of the plants and animals that live in the Rain Forest this book. Crisp, detailed images enhance the text, which is perfect for young readers.
"Counting in the Rain Forest 1-2-3" is a counting book with a rain forest theme. Although children will enjoy the photographs of the varied animals and plants featured, this volume is flawed as a concept book.
The photographs are poorly captioned. Some animals are clearly identified, but not all plants and animals are. "Rain forest wildflower," and "rain forest spider," are not helpful labels. Concrete thinkers being introduced to counting must have examples that are unambiguous. The photograph of the three-toed sloth encourages children to count the toes of only one foot, although two are shown; readers are then asked to count the ten claws of the komodo dragon (which requires both feet shown to reach ten). Asking readers to count the two eyes of an animal for "two" is uninspired and pedestrian. "Four" shows four (unidentified) birds on a branch; in the lower right quadrant there is a blurry green bird-shape with a corresponding beak...it may or may not be a bird, but the ambiguity undermines the effectiveness of the photograph for counting.
The series is ostensibly about counting, but the titles in the "read more," section all focus on rain forest animals and biomes; this section should be expanded to include a counting book or two. With a word count of 23 and only 23 pages ten of which are photos), an index scarcely seems necessary. The suggested websites also fail to include a link to counting activities.
nice realistic pictures. some of the counting is hard to do, 3 toed sloth has 6 toes showing. could be a good way to cross over counting w/habitat studies.