Animal Counting Book

Animal Counting Book
Moritz Kennel ~ Golden Press, 1969

I'll not be reviewing ONLY holiday books over the next few weeks, so to celebrate a departure from all things red, green and blue, here's a nice eye-candy post... this one jumped off the shelf at me on a recent trip to a used book shop. I remembered the illustrations from way back when, and it instantly took me back to 1979.

With an official reader in the house, I've been scoping more titles out that my son can read on his own, so thankfully the purchase was for more than nostalgia reasons. He's memorized all of our books for the most part, so plucking a book from the shelf and "reading" amounts to cheating around these parts. To keep the emergent reader appeased, we've been hitting the library and book shops even more, thus some new Little Golden Book finds.

Over in the meadow in a nest in the sun
Lived an old mother beaver and her little beaver one
Beave said the mother/ We beave said the one
So they beaved all day by the light of the sun

Another take on the familiar Over in the Meadow story, these illustrations are totally swanky (though it's anyone's guess what a "beave" is), regardless of their ability to take me back to the old days. The funny thing is, this spread with the lizard used to terrify me as a child. Now it seems so silly, but the moment I turned the page and saw that momma's sleepy eyes, all the creepiness came flooding back. Good times, my friends. Good times.

(Anyone know anything about the illustrator? Can't seem to find anything except a few Golden books and some plates.)



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