"Counting Crocodiles" by Judy Sierra

"Counting Crocodiles" by Judy Sierra is a fun review of counting along with a clever story. The story takes place on a deserted island that contains a lemon tree, a monkey, a fox and a snail. The monkey is very tired of lemons and has tried cooking them every way possible. There is a near by island with a banana tree that the monkey wants to get to badly but can't because the surrounding Sillabobble Sea is filled with LOTS of Crocodiles. Monkey is very clever and comes up with a plan to get to the bananas. She says to one of the Crocs, "I bet there are more monkeys on this island than there are Crocodiles in the Sea". The Croc is amused by the statement and tells the silly monkey that can't be true because there are enough Crocodiles to stretch from one island to the other, and she will prove it! While the first Crocodile is proving her point she counts off her Croc relatives in groups doing silly things that rhymes with "Crocs"; ex: 3 Crocs standing in a box, 4 Crocs tickling a fox and etc. for numbers one through ten. As Croc #1 is counting the monkey is walking across the crocs to reach the banana tree. In order to get back from the banana tree island to her own island, Monkey goes through a review of what the first Croc said and counts them backwards - ten through one. As the monkey reaches her island safely the first Croc seems proud of herself and says see little monkey there is no way there are more monkeys on the island than there are crocs in the sea. The monkey agrees but tells the crocs there wasn't enough Crocs to outsmart her because she had walked all over them and not been eaten. This story is a great classroom tool as a review of counting numbers one through ten, it even helps children to think about the numbers in reverse ten through one. Each group of crocs is doing something silly and rhyming. The children stay entertained and learn rhyming words at the same time. One unique thing about the rhymes in this book is that the words don't always look like they will rhyme like "cat" and "hat" instead they are words that you must say out loud to rhyme like "crocs" and "box". Children of younger age groups would probably say these two words don't rhyme just by looking at them on paper because it is hard to identify "cs" and "x" as the same noise just by memory. This book would be great to spark plenty of discussions about being clever and how the monkey was able to outsmart the crocs. Monkey beat the odds because she was so much smaller and outnumbered compared to the sea full of crocs but still managed to use her cleverness to get what she wanted and stay safe from the big, bad crocs. In conclusion this book is a must when talking about: rhyming, counting and size not determining ability.