Review by Booklist Review
Ages 3^-7. This counting book, with bright, big pages, is also a starting-school story with lots of facts and popular sayings about numbers in daily life. For each number from 1 to 100, there's a detailed scenario, with Wells' familiar, endearing cast of bunnies, beavers, cats, pigs, and other creatures, at school and home. The large format allows lots of space to show and count objects (24 is two dozen cookies in groups of 3; 62 is the number of things on Mama's shopping list), and each item is clear and beautiful in ink and watercolor. There are also facts (26 letters in the alphabet; 88 keys on the piano), folklore (playing Crazy Eights), and numbers that are all part of our songs and sayings. As in Margery Cuyler's 100th Day Worries (1999) and Tana Hoban's Let's Count (1999), preschoolers can begin with the prime numbers and enjoy the stories in the pictures, then gradually learn to count their way up to 100 with the everyday things around them. --Hazel Rochman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
As Wells's (My Very First Mother Goose) sparkling, ambitious book opens, EmilyÄa childlike bunny who could easily be kin to Max and RubyÄattends her first day of school. Her teacher, a guinea pig named Miss Cribbage, explains that every morning the class will "make a new number friend," and she promises a party when they reach 100 days. "No one believes we will ever get to one hundred days," says Emily. Wells not only counts the intervening days, she finds a context to make each numeral meaningful. On day two, for example, Emily reports that Miss Cribbage teaches the song "Tea for Two." Along the way, readers observe Emily participate in her warm family life, gain and lose a friend and learn from Miss Cribbage's imaginative lessons. Humor comes naturally (e.g., day 89: "`There are only eighty-nine calories in my tomato soup,' says Aunt Mim. `I can't see any,' says [Emily's little brother] Leo"). Remarkably, only a few entries feel contrived (Papa claims there are 51 reasons why Emily's big sister can't go into the city with her friends; Mama says she can find 56 ways to answer "How Do I Love Thee?"). The spreads, varying from full-page art to panels, are crisp, colorful and winningly detailed, as Wells's fans have come to expect. Except for some production flawsÄsuch as the misspelled "ninteen" and several stylistic inconsistenciesÄthis oversize volume scores big. Ages 3-6. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-On Emily's first day of school, her teacher announces that the class will make a new "number friend" each day and celebrate with a party on the 100th day. Though it seems like it will never come, seasons pass and Emily learns about all the ways numbers are important. The children count the nine planets, 26 letters, days in a month, 50 states, and minutes in an hour. They note the number of cookies by the dozen at Christmas, calories in Aunt Mim's tomato soup, and keys on Mr. Horn's piano. In between, they sing songs like "Tea for Two" and "76 Trombones." When the big day finally arrives, they celebrate by sharing their projects. The numbers are presented in increments of 10 in the clever framework of a news show, "BNN, Bunny News Network." Each segment displays the featured number in a large, colorful box with the numeral also represented in word and number form scrolling along the bottom of the screen as in a real news show. While this animated version of Rosemary Wells's book (Hyperion, 2000) is faithful to the print edition and features the same adorable animal characters and primary-colored cartoons, it is tedious and too long for its intended audience. Readers can browse through the oversized tome at their leisure, but viewers will grow impatient with each passing day. The "Scene Selection" might be preferable to a single-sitting showing.-Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Primary) Many picture books cover the first day of school, but with Emily, an eager and inquisitive bunny, Rosemary Wells is in for the long haul. On day one of what appears to be first grade (the text doesn't specify), Emily's teacher Miss Cribbage tells students they will ""make a new number friend"" every day for the next hundred days, at the end of which they will have a celebratory bash. ""No one believes we will ever get to one hundred days,"" says Emily, still flush with the newness of the classroom environment. Skeptics may doubt Wells can find fresh, engaging presentations for that many numbers, but overall she manages beautifully, a feat similar to what she accomplished with nursery rhymes in her Mother Goose books. Alive with color and thematically relevant decoration (e.g. a border of all fifty-two cards in the deck on day 52, when Emily plays hearts with her grandmother), the oversized pages are sometimes divided into several panels, but they never feel too busy. Each number gets a chance to shine in a way that allows readers to become caught up in Emily's daily life. Her best friend Diane Duck moves away, but sends a package on day 67 to Emily's house, which happens to be located at Sixty-seven Oak Street. Emily's number notebook helps her chart her progress in school: on day 14 she writes her name in fourteen different colors; on day 47 she reads aloud a book that contains forty-seven words. Although there are some contrivances, such as having exactly twenty-eight peas in a Jell-O cup at lunch on day 28, the time goes by all too fast. Before you know it, Emily is marking down one hundred kisses on a letter to her family, in which she proudly displays her reading, writing, and counting skills. c.m.h. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Wells (Yoko, 1998, etc.) makes numbers fun and relevant to daily life in this longer than usual picture book. Emily's teacher promises that her class will have a special celebration on the 100th day of school. Every day the children write a new number in their number books and Emily includes it in a story. Those one- or two-sentence stories tell about Emily's lessons in school, the antics of her friends and family, and her thoughts and feelings as she lives through these hundred days. Each of the little stories says a lot in a few words: "Eloise is thirteen years old. She thinks she knows everything." Some stories have specific references that children may not know, but Wells gives them context through the illustrations. For the number sixteen, grandpa and grandma play "Sixteen Tons" and the first line of the music and words dance above their heads. Wells's ink and watercolor drawings of effervescent little animals with human characteristics are familiar to her readers and sure to bring a smile. The variety of the page design, bold colors, movement, and humor create interest and liveliness. Some numbers have a full-page spread; others share the page. Pages may have frames or borders filled with objects related to the story; others have color extended to the corners. Every page is filled with details, but the numbers stand out, as do the many counting opportunities, making this a delightful learning opportunity. It also fulfills a need for teachers who follow the well-known mathematical pedagogy program that the celebration describes. Delicious! (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
