One Two: That's My Shoe! (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- One Two: That's My Shoe!
The little girl and her pup from Apple Pie ABC (BCCB 6/11) have returned, and the mutt's up to mischief again. Initially the enumeration is benign—one dog, two shoes—but soon the dog has snatched one of his mistress' red Mary Janes, [End Page 574] and we're counting the objects he's encountering as he gleefully flees his pursuing owner. After bounding past things like tulips (six), trees (seven), and items on the laundry line (eight), he's startled into a hasty retreat by encountering cheeping chicks (nine) and their protective flock (ten). The text employs the classic "five, six, pick up sticks" structure that combines counting with rhyming couplets; aside from numbers, the compact-lined verse focuses mostly on action ("Three . . . Four//Out the door!"). The art is Murray's familiar high-spirited digital retro, with maximum contrast between muted shades of aqua and teal and the popping red of the girl's sweater and shoes. There's a handmade feel from the deft striations in line and the underpainted backdrops, and there's a thoughtful rhythm in the compositions that bespeaks craft at every page turn. The numbers themselves are effectively and clearly anchored into the layout, with each text iteration adjoining a big blue box sporting the numeral in white, with thumbnail silhouettes of the countable things (the "Six" that leads past six tulips, for instance, offers six miniatures of the flowers below a numeral 6) helping connect art and concept. The oversized page design makes this shareable in groups, while a more intimate reading will give youngsters a chance to finger-count the objects and point out the illustrative gems.
