One Gorilla: A Counting Book (review)

Browne makes a simple counting book into a celebration of the primate family in this radiant gallery of portraits. The text is spare: "1 gorilla"; "2 orangutans"; "3 chimpanzees"; and so forth, concluding after "10 lemurs" with depictions of the author and an array of humans. The portraits, however, are extraordinary: Browne's exquisite precision, with delicate hatching of fur and careful stippled delination of facial lines, becomes jubilant with color and personality. Each spread of primate faces is a stunning collection of individuals: the nine colubus monkeys, for instance, are as different in expression and feature as nine humans would be. The orderly presentations, full frontal view, and absence of background accentuate the human/primate comparison by suggesting that each species is sitting for a family portrait. Therefore, what would initially be a look at differentness—gazing at the snowy wonder of the octet of macaques, for instance—becomes an invitation to a narrative about the similarity of families, encouraging kids to wonder who's the grandfather, who's the shy sister, who's the family showoff, etc. As a counting book, this has a simple majesty that will mesmerize some kids, but you could also use it to talk about biology in a pairing with Steve Jenkins' nature study titles—or with collections of human family portraits.