The Crayon Counting Book

July 29, 1996
In a high-tech approach to a low-tech subject, computer-generated crayons strike different poses on each page of this surprisingly animated counting book. The crayons appear in rows, pyramids and pairs do-si-do-ing in a line; they stand on their heads and lie in piles. The rhyming text counts by twos, first by even numbers ("A set of twins joins the color scheme,/ which brings the count to precisely sixteen"), then by odds ("Seventeen pastels, delicate and light/ Nineteen hotshots, bold and bright"). While the reader is ostensibly counting crayons from a box of 24, she must suspend disbelief: obviously there would not be 11 greens (with names like "iguana," "wasabi" and "emerald tree boa"), much less 15 blues, within a particular assortment. It's a slight book, but a colorful one. Ages 3-8.