Ten Little Beasties

July 25, 2011
It's survival of the fittest in this wild counting book. This father-and-daughter team offers a cast of spiky, angular, black-and-white monsters that cavort to a riff on the "Ten Little Indians" nursery rhyme. "One little/ two little/ three little beasties,/ four little/ five little/ six little beasties," it reads as the corresponding number of creatures appear on each page. At the end, a reptilian beastie begins devouring the others, until only one is leftâbut not the one readers might expect. A downloadable performance of the song by Rebecca Emberley's daughter, Adrian, is available online. Ages 2â6.

August 1, 2011

The Emberleys' romp joins the heavily populated field of titles loosely based on common childhood rhymes.

Abstract monsters created in mostly black and white cavort against vibrant backgrounds. As the group gathers, the counting begins: "One little / two little / three little beasties..," Once all 10 are assembled, they dance for one spread. Turn the page—surprise—one beastie gobbles up another. And so the carnivorous countdown commences. Counting up to 10 and back down again is nothing new. What grabs readers here are the primitive-looking beasties populating the pages. Each beast has some unique identifiable shape or special additional colors: One has a striped horn, one flashes a blue zippered mouth and one sports an elaborate white spiral on its body. This helps in keeping track of the creatures for counting purposes, but that task is often challenging, as some spreads only show parts of a beastie. As most concept books are aimed squarely at preschoolers, this effort may suffer from audience confusion; it could be difficult finding readers who have the patience to puzzle it out. The cover urges readers to "download the song and read along!" At the time of this review, the link was not available.

Perhaps the audio addition will add some much-needed magic to this dizzying outing, but as a stand-alone book, this offers little appeal. (Picture book. 2-5)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 1, 2011

PreS-Gr 1-Begin with one weird and wacky, black-and-white beastie, then add an additional, but very different-looking one, to each subsequent page, and you have the Emberleys' newest offering, done with their inimitable twist and style. Looking a little like what one might expect to find under the microscope, each creature is fantastical and geometric, but with a splotch of color to add to the exotic designs each one sports. Each spread is of a different vibrant color, with the appropriate number of beasties placed on it. The text can be sung to the tune of "Ten Little Indians," though Adrian Emberley has written an original melody to accompany the book, which can be found on the website mentioned on the back cover. Once all 10 are together, it takes a few more pages to figure out that one of them is eating the others, which is why readers have to count back down, where they discover that one of the smallest beasties gets the last word-or bite. Some of the beasties will remind children of familiar creatures, while others are unique; in either case, it's a feast of beasts and brilliant colors for young readers.-Maggie Chase, Boise State University, ID

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.