ALL ABOARD!

Toddler whisperer/children's book creator Emma Garcia is back with another sure-fire hit in her new picture book, Chugga Chugga Choo Choo. Perfect for storytime as well as sharing individually, this bright and boldly illustrated book covers lots of concept territory--it's obviously a train book, first and foremost, but also includes numbers and animals. Though the text is appropriately brief for the toddler crowd, a story line takes shape between the multiple concepts being explored. As the train makes it's way from the seashore, through the forest, through the city, and past the farmyard, before it finally pulls into the station, picking up different numbers and types of birds along the way. 

A can't-miss book for young train enthusiasts and fan's of Garcia's other vehicle-laden titles, this book is also just the ticket for building multiple early literacy skills, including narrative skills, print awareness, and phonological awareness. Full steam ahead!

ONE TWO AND THREE!

Numbers play an important role in our everyday lives. We use them to count money, tell the hours of the day, dial telephone, show prices of things, mark the buildings on the street and much more. Now, imagine a world without them. This might sound surprising for some of you, but there was a time that we had no numbers. Even today, there are people in some parts of the world that do not count the way we do. For example, in the recent past, Veddas of Sri Lanka, who lived very simply, used words such as a single, a couple, another one and many more to count their crops. THE HISTORY OF COUNTING by DENISE SCHMANDT BESSERAT and the illustrations by MICHAEL HAYS is such a fascinating book that you will not even think to count the time or the pages in order for you to finish this informative and fun book.

For grades three through five.