Reviews for 1, 2, 3 in My House

The average rating for 1, 2, 3 in My House based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-03-12 00:00:00 Dave Rinaldi Title (italicize): Rockheads Author: Harriet Ziefert Illustrator (if separate from author): Todd McKie Genre: Counting Book, Picture Book Theme(s): Counting, Nature, Music, Sports Opening line/sentence (type directly from text): Here I am. There's only one me. I'm all alone, as you can see. Brief Book Summary (2-3 sentences in your own words): The book starts with one rockhead and he points out that he is "one." Along the way he meets friends and the author makes an effort to count how many rockheads are on one page. As the book progresses the author uses the number to relate the rockheads to different groups of people like sports teams and music groups. Professional Recommendation/Review #1 (cut & paste, details below): Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz Children's Literature "A new way to have fun as we learn to count from one to twelve. Along the way, there's a chance to also learn new vocabulary for numbered groups, such as trio, quartet, and octet, or for how many are needed for games like basketball, baseball and soccer. For each number there's a brief rhyme and a chance to practice adding. But the greatest fun comes from the "rockheads" we are counting. Smooth river stones are given eyes and mouths with simply painted dots and lines and noses made from smaller stones. These offer just enough embellishment to produce a range of expressions. Bodies and simple props are produced with thick black outlines and filled with smoothly applied solid colors. Page designs can be as frenetic as the soccer players or as casually restful as the Little Leaguers sitting on a bench. Artfully attractive enough to encourage some readers to try to make rockheads of their own." Recommendation/Review #2 (cut & paste, details below): Kirkus Kirkus Reviews "Rocks with smaller-rock noses and painted-on eyes and mouths are nicely photographed and placed atop simply drawn bodies in this read-aloud for the nursery set. At first, "Here I am. There's only one me. / I'm all alone, as you can see." But the first-rock narrator is quickly joined by friends in a rhyming and numerical sequence that jumps from activity to activity: "Forwards, guards, and the center, Jean, / Five of us make a basketball team. / With Fred, a gymnast, in the group, / We're a six-kid acrobatic troop." Pictures are extremely simple, made from bold, black outlines and flatly solid colors. A few props for each activity provide casual distinction between pages. Not necessarily deep enough to sustain repeated readings, but the photos of rock faces are magnetic. Beware: may cause rock-crafting urges in older siblings" Response to Two Professional Reviews (3-4 sentences in your own words) I agree with a lot of the points that the reviews mention. I like how this book not only incorporates numbers, but it has new words along with corresponding pictures for the reader to learn. The Children's Literature review mentions that the pictures are quite busy and I agree. Additionally, the book does not have any actual numbering of the rockheads. I believe children should see the word spelled out as well as the number in order to best learn numbers.Other than this, I think this book is a great book to keep children's interest and may spike interest in rocks! Evaluation of Literary Elements (3-4 sentences in your own words): You can tell by the size of the book and the large text that this is for very early readers. The pictures, while busy, are interesting and keep the child's attention. Based on Molly Bang's Picture This! this book could benefit from some more pictorial emphasis on what the text is saying by placing the element in the middle of the page. The author does a great job at including new rich vocabulary for the reader to pick up. Consideration of Instructional Application (3-4 sentences in your own words): This book would be a really great addition to learning about numbers and including literacy. The opportunities to create a hands on experience with this book are endless. The book is focused on rocks and that material is readily available. You could use this book to practice writing out numbers and you could use rocks to write on or have the students create their own rockheads. In terms of crossing into other content areas, you could teach children about rocks and the science of Earth minerals.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-11-28 00:00:00 Greg Finney This book is simple and creative. The illustrator has collected beach stones over the years, and recently decided to start creating small sculptures from the stones. This story is made up of children with his stone creations for heads. It is a fun counting book, starting with one child and adding another child each time the page is turned. By the end of the story there are twelve children together. Also, this book is written in rhyme, so it would be a good one to use for children to work on sounds.