1, 2, I Love You by Alice Schertle, Emily Arnold McCully (Illustrator), Emily Arnold McCully (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

Inspired by the traditional favorite, Alice Schertle's irresistible counting rhyme sings and swings along, while Caldecott-winning Emily Arnold McCully's radiant watercolors perfectly capture all the playfulness and tender affection between parent and child. A joyful romp sure to be read again and again, memorized, and cherished.

Publishers Weekly

With a "1, 2, buckle my shoe" structure and rhythm as a jumping off point, Schertle (All You Need for a Snowman) and McCully (Mirette on the Highwire) send a mother elephant and her son on a series of fun and often incredible adventures. "5, 6, clickety sticks/ a trumpet and a drum,/ I'll march with you to Timbuktu,/ toot-toot tumpety-tum," says the mother elephant, as she and her son jubilantly cross a desert in sight of a camel train. In fact, the mother elephant-who sports an impressive collection of chapeaux-seems game for just about anything: she catches stars "to put in pickle jars" for her little one, plays toy soldiers with the concentration of a seasoned military strategist and commands a toy train (even though her girth requires her to straddle two cars). When the rhyme reaches 10, it reverses count ("2, 1, now we're done,/ .../ trumpet's silent, drum is still,/ shadows cover house and hill"), and takes the pair to bedtime, with the promise of new adventures in dreamland. McCully's elegant draftsmanship and accomplished, pleasingly old-fashioned painterliness may bring to mind 1950s-era vintage children's books, but the mother-son merriment feels modern and wholly original, as does the wry intelligence evident in the elephant mother's eyes. Ages 3-7. (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Mary Loftus - Children's Literature

This counting book begins with a new twist on an old and familiar rhyme. The reassuring message of love and security is embellished by fun and fanciful rhymes and rhythms. "3,4, dip and pour/oceans from a pail./We might catch a mermaid/with a swishy fish's tail." And this counting book includes a backward count after reaching 10. "7,6, magic tricks,/watch us disappear./We can hide all snug inside-/they'll never find us here." Caldecott medalist McCully paints an elephant and her baby as the main characters with a cast of other characters from mermaids and toy soldiers to camels and monkeys that will delight the young reader. The light mood of the illustrations plays along nicely with the rhythm of the words. And the final poem not only reassures the young reader with its soothing message, but ties nicely to the rhyme on the first page. 2004, Chronicle Books, Ages 4 to 8.

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