CET Writes

Image from goodreads.com While it’s evident that most big band and jazz musicians can count 1-2-3-4, Ehrhardt’s all-stars work their way all the way up to 10. Set to the rhythm of "This Old Man," each musician plays his number in his signature style, inserting raucous onomatopoeia into the verse where the “knick-knack, paddy whack” usually goes. Roth’s illustrations, executed in mixed media collages, use swatches of fabric and wallpaper cut into clothes, India ink brushwork, sponge-applied pigments, and jazz-related ephemera to energetically sketch the appearance, personality, and musical stylings of each jazz man in his turn, along with a tiny grey guest star who can be followed from page to page. After finishing their solos and jamming together on number 10, the jazz men are introduced individually in brief biographical sketches. Observant fans would have noticed clues to their identities, but in the end they are revealed to be a nonet of jazz luminaries including Lou...

Image from amazon.com Much like its protagonist, The Very Hungry Caterpillar metamorphoses. As its story begins and as it ends, it is a nature book featuring the life cycle of the butterfly from egg to adult; in the middle, though, it becomes a counting book featuring a tactile hook. Starting with the larva-eaten endpages, the copious whitespace allows for easy focus on the little caterpillar as it sets out on its journey through a series of die-cut pages. Beginning with a single hole in a single apple on a very short page, each opening in this section becomes longer and longer, with more fruit and more holes. Therefore, a child learning to count has multiple signifiers of increasing amount and quantity: the simple visual of the brightly-colored cut-paper fruit; the hole in each piece, which he or she can feel as an individual item; and the size of the page, which scales in direct proportion to the the number represented. The days of the week are also taught as these feats of ...