You can count on Shirley to get it right (When We Went to the Park - Shirley Hughes)

Member Name: cmh4135

Product:	When We Went to the Park - Shirley Hughes
Date:	13/01/08 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great illustrations and encourages counting

Disadvantages: Amazon is rather misleading as to the content of this book

Shirley Hughes is well known for producing great children's books and "When we went to the park" is no exception.

Ms Hughes combines a very simple story about a little girl walking to the park with her Grandpa with a great counting game. The girl leaves home and encounters various things in ever increasing numbers from one black cat through to ten birds in the sky and eventually onto so many leaves that they can't be counted.

The illustrations, in common with many of Shirley's books are an absolute delight and the fully compliment the pitter-patter tale as it unfolds. The illustrations are in a watercolour and ink style and are suitably detailed. They allow flexibility within the reading of this book so that the book can be read as a whole or you can take your time over the pictures and enhance the basic words with a game of "can you see the....". My son loves trying to spot some of the smaller items in the pictures and you can almost see him linking things together (such as the fact that one of the four babies is asleep and has dropped his teddy).

Hughes uses semi-urban settings for her illustrations that make them all the more believable and give the book a very homely feel. It's a relaxing read rather than a challenging one.

The book is a good introduction to numbers. As I read I tend to count out the items, visibly pointing to them in turn, so I might use the words "seven dogs chasing one another" and then I'll count each of the seven dogs in the picture, perhaps asking my son which dog is "best". At 18 months my son has the concept of one through to three but no more and so this repetitive method works well to convey the concept of numbers without being boring. The last pages of the book aid the numbers games as they contain miniature versions of all of the characters seen in the book and these can be counted and recalled. Even at this stage I can say "what's that" to around 50% of the illustrations and my son will at least correctly identify the items. It's a great recap.

The Amazon blurb for this book might suggest that it will also teach shape, size and colour. This is not the case although other books in the "Nursery Collection" do and so, in this regard, Amazon is a little misleading.

Whether you use this as teaching aid or just as a wonderfully illustrated delightful story I'm sure it will give pleasure.

I'd say it was suited to children from about 18 months through to those aged 3-4. I suspect (although don't have relevant experience) that it would also be suitable for early readers as the language is simple and the font clear.

Summary: A great counting story