Bush mob counting by Helen Milroy

The wonderful series, Tales from the bush mob is continued with this durable board book teaching smaller readers the numbers from one to ten using the Australian animals depicted in the series. Each double page has a brief text and number on the left hand side, while showing the animal concerned on the rest of the page in bright, enticing colours. Dingo welcomes readers on the opening page telling them to watch out for the animal, number and time of day as each page is turned. The first page shows a quoll, number one, a single quoll sleeps at dawn, while number two over the page, shows two magpies singing in the morn. Wombats, dingoes, bats, possums amongst others are illustrated across each of the pages, encouraging younger readers to count to the number depicted by finding the animals illustrated. They will enjoy searching and predicting the next number until the number ten is reached with ten willy wagtails getting ready for bed.

So the whole day has passed showing readers what the animals do at a particular time of day, until at night, the birds are ready for bed. Meanwhile emus race across the pages all day long while koalas rest in the trees, kangaroos lunch at noon and dingoes howl at the morning sun. Each animal has a particular place to be at a set time, and readers will be encouraged o talk about what they do at that time of the day.

Milroy’s rich, vibrant illustrations depict the landscape against which these animals live, making her work most recognisable. Children will seek out the other stories in this excellent series, finding them simply by spotting the attractive illustrative technique Milroy employs.

Themes: Counting, Time, Australian animals, Australian bush.

Fran Knight