How Many Cats? by Lauren Thompson
Image From: http://www.paperbackswap.com/How-Cats-Lauren-Thompson/book/1423108019/
Bibliographic Information: Thompson, Lauren. How Many Cats?. Illus. Robin Eley. New York. Disney-Hyperion Books, 2009. Print.
Summary: This is a very clever book that includes counting and cats. The author, Lauren Thompson, does a great job of turning a counting book into more than just that. She stretches the readers brain by counting up to 20 and back down again. Another neat part of this book is that she starts at the number zero, which is a good thing for young readers to learn. This helps them understand that zero is a number and also where it belongs in the scheme of things. In addition to counting forward and backward, Thompson bundles the cats together to help with the idea of multiplication. For 15 cats, she shows three groups of five cats. This is a wonderful idea! The illustrations are also very realistic looking and wonderfully diverse in color.
Thematic Units: Counting, Cats, Multiplication, Bundling Numbers, Reverse Counting
Memorable Passages:
“Twenty cats jump and jive, frolicking in four rows of five.”
“Then five tired cats leave the scene. How many cats are left?”
These passages show how the author incorporates bundling/multiplication and subtraction into the book. I think this is a great idea!
