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Review by Alice Cary
Yet another variation on the numerical theme can be found in Let's Count It Out, Jesse Bear, containing counting poems starring Jesse Bear, the hero of a delightful series of books (such as Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? and It's About Time, Jesse Bear). Nancy White Carlstrom's rhymes about Jesse always roll pleasingly off the tongue, in this case with verses such as "Happy Hopping Two Shoes" and "Six Straight Sticks." Bruce Degen, who also illustrates the Magic School Bus series, knows how to make children laugh out loud with his work.
Carlstrom and Degen are quite a twosome, having concocted clever scenes that include Jesse and his parents squeezed into a photo booth ("We Three"), family and friends riding on bumper cars ("Four that Roar") and Jesse covering himself with brightly colored bandages ("Nine Is Fine"). Full-page spreads and poems are devoted to numbers one through ten; eleven through twenty are detailed with smaller, though equally inventive drawings that older children will enjoy identifying (balls, flags, and wheels, including a wheel of cheese).
Alice Cary counts with her son Will and reviews books in Groton, Massachusetts.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.
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