Author Description

Product DescriptionWoolly the sheep cannot sleep and so he sets off into the surrounding countryside to try and find ways to make himself tired.From Publishers WeeklyIn one of the more subtle counting books around, Woolly, a sheep, can't sleep and so he goes for a walk. He chases a butterfly, sees two ladybugs, and "some owls" (three in the picture) call to him. Readers have to count the four bats, five apples, six squirrels and seven ladder rungs. Woolly finds a house where he starts drawing pictures, which he hangs on walls, has a dinner of peas, looks at the (20) stars, and goes to bed in striped pajamas. He starts thinking about his (21) relatives (all sheep, of course) and drifts off to sleep. An index at the back provides a complete list of the items to be counted. Kitamura takes full artistic license with the logistics of the plotWoolly beds down for the night in a conveniently empty mansionbut his counting is impeccable. An off-white sheep set against deep-toned watercolors, Woolly is an truly endearing insomniac.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.Review"A book that many children would enjoy returning to time and time again." * Early Years Educator * "A perfect picture book." * Times Literary Supplement * "One of the most alluring counting books in print." * The Observer *About the AuthorSatoshi Kitamura was born in 1956 in Tokyo. Not formally trained as an artist, at the age of nineteen he began to do commercial art in Japan and, later, London. He won the Mother Goose Award for his first picture book,Angry Arthur, in collaboration with Hiawyn Oram, and in 2000 was the Smarties runner-up forMe and My Cat?From School Library JournalPreSchool-Grade 2 Woolly, 1 sheep, has insomnia, and so he goes to the meadow where he finds 2 ladybugs, 3 owls, 4 bats, etc.all the way up to 22 "z's" when he finally nods off in an unoccupied house that he has discovered. The droll watercolor illustrations contain the items to be counted, but they are not enumerated in the text, and so it is a game to find and count them. An index at the end of the book lists the numbers and the items. This playful work is simpler than Anno's Counting Book (Crowell, 1977), which is more visually sophisticated and it is as irresistible as Lisa Campbell Ernst's Up to Ten and Down Again (Lothrop, 1986). Like Kitamura's What's Inside: the Alphabet Book (Farrar, 1985), this presents an engaging and fresh approach that young readers will enjoy on their own. Lorraine Douglas, Winnipeg Public Library, Manitoba, CanadaCopyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.