- 21 Proms, and: Fish, Swish! Splash, Dash!: Counting Round and Round
A yellow fish with orange fins and spots emerges from its hiding place among the sea-floor flora and fauna to issue the invitation, "Follow the leader/ and count with me/ the fish that live/ beneath the sea." As the sturdy card-stock pages turn, die-cut openings in the center of each recto feature the accumulating number of colorful fishes. The charm lies in the contrast between the simplicity of the concept (the bottom of each page border tersely notes, "1 fish," "2 fish," etc.) and the nifty paper engineering that allows bits of several layers of board to show simultaneously, surprising viewers at every turn with the transformation of the hitherto hidden design. Once we hit ten, our ichthyological guide reappears, swimming up the side of the last page to demonstrate how to turn the book upside down and begin the countdown from ten to one, this time with written number names rather than numerals. Colors are crisp and vibrant, deriving much of their pizzazz from the juxtaposition of contrasting hues—yellow and aqua, lime and orange, teal and magenta. A dash of metallic lettering on the cover adds an alluring shimmer and an invitation to touch. Since our swimming host never tires of leading children from front to back and back to front, expect to make at least a few rounds per sitting.