Today is World Maths Day. And what better way to celebrate than with a book? A great picture can help develop both a love of reading AND improve maths skills at the same time . I’m going to share three new books all about counting which would be great to use at any time.  Not just on World Maths Day.

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‘Search and Find a Number of Numbers,’ by Allan Sanders (Wide Eyed Editions) 

This book is packed with all number of things to find, from 1 unicycle wheel to 100 yellow hard hats, with snowballs, farm animals and fairy cakes along the way. There are also of other challenges to complete along the way like matching pairs or finding a hidden sombrero.

What makes this book so interesting is that each page has an entirely different theme to enjoy and not just your more ‘typical’ scenarios. It also contains lots of interesting vocabulary for readers to absorb whilst they’re counting. The States in the United States of America or the names of instruments in an orchestra, for example. 4+

’Everybody Counts: A Counting Story from 0 to 7.5 Billion,’ by Kristin Roskifte (Wide Eyed Editions)

This is a slightly different twist on a counting book as readers are encouraged to count people, follow them through the book and think about their feelings. For example at the beach, we are asked to find the two adults who are panicking because they can’t see their children. This is obviously slightly subjective but leads to some very close scrutiny of the page and justifying of opinions.

I like that it gives a very clear visual representation of how numbers compare to each other in size. This can be very difficult to do with larger numbers. We had lots of fun searching for the different people and making up stories about what was going on. 7+

‘One Banana, Two Bananas,’ by Adam & Charlotte Guillain, illustrated by Sam Lloyd (Egmont Publishing)

Little ones will go bananas for this crazy, bouncy rhyming bonanza! With unimaginable mob madness banding together with a bunch of bananas in pyjamas (llamas and banana boats anyone?), there’s so much packed into these pages for readers to giggle at!

The rhyming verse and counting rhythm mean that children will be able to join with abandon after a read-aloud or two. There’s also an accompanying Bananas song to enjoy – just look for the ‘One Bananas, Two Bananas Song’ on YouTube.

Happy counting!

Library Girl.

*Many thanks to Wide Eyed Editions and Egmont Publishing for sending me these titles to review*