Teeth, Tails, and Tentacles: An Animal Counting Book by Christopher Wormell

Wormell, Christopher. (2004). Teeth, Tails, and Tentacles: An Animal Counting Book. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press Kids.

Grade Level:
I would recommend this book for students in grades K-3.

Author Credibility:
Christopher Wormell has written a number of children’s books. He worked first as a wood engraver, and eventually started illustrating children’s books. This book was a Notable Children’s Book for 2005.

Summary:
This book is a counting book. Each page, up to the number twenty, has a large number at the top with the number word underneath. A group of words appears under the numbers describing the number and illustration. For example, one rhinoceros horn. On the opposite page is painting of the animal described on the other page. For the number one there was a painting of a rhinoceros. After counting up to twenty the author presents each animal again and gives information about each animal. A painting of the animal accompanies each description

Standards:
Math
-Numbers and Operations

Illustrations:
Illustrations in this book were done by Christopher Wormell. They consist of paintings. These paintings accompany the text and allow the students to count something on the animal.

Access Features:
*About the Author

How I would use the book in the classroom:
This book would be good to use to work on counting with younger students. For older students this book could become a springboard for researching different animals.

My response to the book:
I like books that tell about different animals. I liked that the animals were described at the end of the book. The illustrations were very detailed. They would be very easy to count the different things on the animals.

Related Texts:
*The Coin Counting Book by Rozanne Lanczak Williams
*Counting Kisses by Karen Katz
*The Icky Bug Counting Book by Jerry Pallotta and Ralph Masiello

Other:
The end pages are a forest green. This makes me think of the outdoors. Additional end pages in the front and the back count to twenty and show the different animals used in the book.