One to Ten and Back Again

We've been working on counting a lot lately, and one of our fun counting books is One to Ten and Back Again. This is a board book with two special gimmicks. First, there are ribbons that are strung through the book, with one new ribbon appearing on each page. Second, each page has text written right-side-up and upside-down. The last page instructs you to turn the book over and read the opposite side. The very minimal story is that insects and other small animals all come to sit on a big flower (one bee, two butterflies, three grasshoppers, etc.), and then when you flip the book over, they all leave, one set at a time.

Both of these gimmicks work really well. The ribbons make a very fun swooshing noise when the pages are turned. The ribbons are actually integral to the book, since the animals you're counting appear on the ribbons.


Turning the book upside-down is very exciting to a toddler. It also allows the book to lead you through counting both up and down without having twice as many pages. The design of the book actually makes it very easy to read without getting confused. In fact, the first time I picked it up in the store, I didn't even realize that it had this upside-down feature! (To be fair, I was distracted by keeping Charlie entertained while I shopped.) All of the text to read is written on the right-hand page for the direction you're holding it, so your eye naturally is drawn there. In addition, the upside-down pages have a black background while the right-side-up ones have a white background. This means that you don't even really notice the black background pages while you're reading it the first way, and then when you turn it upside-down, you are already on alert.

My only complaint here is that the slots in the pages for the ribbons to go through weaken the structural integrity of the pages, so it's easier to bend and crease the pages than in an ordinary board book. So far, the creases haven't prevented the pages from turning properly, though.

The illustrations are pretty cute, too. The black and white background serves to highlight the brightly colored flower and insects. As the creatures pile on to the flower, it starts to bend over, ending up pretty smushed by page 10. Then as you count back down to 1 in the upside-down part, the flower gradually stands back up. There's also a little preview on each right-side-up page--the bottom right corner lets you know which animal is coming next.

Oh, and perhaps this counts as a third gimmick--there's a cutout running all the way through one side of the book that serves as a handle. Even a very little kid can hold this book easily in one hand, making it very portable for restaurants or waiting rooms.