[.ca] Countdown to Spring!: An Animal Counting Book (ISBN 0375826955)

From Amazon.com:
Once spring has sprung, all the little woodland and meadow critters come out to play. Janet Schulman and Meilo So celebrate the dawn of this gentle season with a perfectly lovely counting book. From "10 Ladybugs crawling all around the crocuses" to "1 Easter Basket filled with treats for all the animals," the countdown includes peeping chicks, scurrying squirrels, and creeping foxes, all painted in So's spare, appealing watercolors. A riot of wildflowers and marsh reeds serves as a backdrop for each beautifully arranged spread, with the animals to be counted frolicking or fluttering all around. Learning to count will be easy with this happy, memorable picture book. Acclaimed children's book publisher and author Janet Schulman is the anthologist of You Read to Me & I'll Read to You. Award-winning artist Meilo So's delicate watercolors can also be seen in The 20th-Century Children's Poetry Treasury and It's Simple, Said Simon, among other gems. (Ages 3 to 7) --Emilie Coulter

Spring is Here.....:
"It's spring! Do you think the children who live here will remember their animal friends on this special day?" Turn the page and let's find out. Beginning with ten bright red and black lady bugs, crawling among the beautiful purple and yellow crocuses, little ones are asked, "Can you count them?" Then nine butterflies flutter across the double page spread, eight bright yellow, singing birds, seven peeping chicks, six quacking ducks, and on and on until you reach "1 Easter Basket filled with treats for all the animals." Janet Schulman and Meilo So have authored a simple, gentle little treasure of a counting book, that will charm preschoolers as young as two, with its engaging springtime animals and bright, colorful, watercolor artwork. Perfect for lap cuddling, Countdown To Spring is a sweet, fresh, vibrant and fun way to introduce both counting and the warmer season coming our way.

Just right for an Easter basket!:
Simple, but beautiful watercolor paintings of springtime creatures invite young children to use their counting skills. Starting with ten ladybugs, each page counts down to include 9 butterflies, 8 birds, 7 chicks, 6 ducklings, 5 mice, 4 bunnies, 3 squirrels and 2 foxes. The final spread has an Easter basket filled with goodies for each of the animals. The animals on each page are shown along with flowers of the season, such as iris, crocus, tulips, cherry blossoms and daffodils. Although the book is fairly small, and therefore easy for a young child to hold, it will work well in a toddler or young preschool storytime setting, because the text is simple, and the illustrations are easily visible from a distance. Keep this title in mind for including in a young child's Easter basket!

Countdown to spring:
Counting down from 10 ladybugs, 9 butterflies, 8 birds, etc. to spring conjures up lovely watercolor paintings of springtime flowers with creatures crawling, fluttering, and singing. The child can find these creatures around the flowers and meadows and count how many are in the picture while learning to recognize and name each one. The one basket on the last page contains vegetable treats for the creatures with the creatures grouped together in their specific number. For reinforcement, the child can name the various creatures and count how many of them are depicted in each group, just as they did from page to page. The text is very simple, a story of light fluttering creatures taking their places in the scheme of spring.