One of the many developmental milestones for any child is learning how to count. There are about a billion ways to teach counting and many of those are via books. To write a post on one counting book, or to own only one counting book is very difficult. There are so many options out there. In this post, I am going to highlight three in an abbreviated manner.

If you like the normal dadsigner book review format, don’t worry I will bring it back. Because it is important to know how many voices you will need to prep for any given book. On to the books:

Numbers

This beautiful hardcover book by Orla Kiely is a perfect example of her illustration style. Orla is an Irish fashion designer who has created 50’s style patterns for everything from baby diaper bags to hand soap bottles. Her color palette and pattern work is immediately recognizable for the trained eye.

This book has some great simple pictures with great styled numerals. It is also cool how both the number and the word is on the page so that a child can learn both together. The book is constructed quite durable with a printed canvas hardback cover. The typography and illustrations in this book are probably my favorite of the three.

Romeo & Juliet: A BabyLit® Counting Primer

This is another in the BabyLit series like the Huckleberry Finn book I reviewed here. These books are all amazing in the way they take adult literature and turn the stories into simplified baby books. I love how they boiled Romeo and Juliet into a counting book. Especially number four where they incorporate the rose quote from the play.

Illustration and typography style in this book are simple and match the story very well. It is whimsical and fun which is a refreshing take on a counting book.

Countablock

Probably the thickest children’s book I have ever held! This counting book counts up to 100. It is a tough task to come up with how X amount of an item turn into X amount of another – 19 times (it counts to 10 then jumps by tens to 100). But no doubt they discovered some interesting and unique transitions.

Lindsay’s favorite is the 6 balls of yarn that turn into 6 sweaters. It is cool how the numbers are die cut out of the page to make an interesting peek into what comes hext. This was a book we both loved so much we bought it in November as a Christmas present. One word of warning, it will be a little while before your toddler’s attention span will last long enough to get all the way through this one.

Have you found a counting book that your family has fallen in love with? Comment below with a link.