Melanie Gerth

Ten little ladybugs are in an epic eleven page journey home. While traveling they meet several animals in the wild and interact in awesome counting fashion. Filled with colorful images. Not much to say for plot, it was written for three year olds with interactive number memorization in mind.

As a classic counting book, ten becomes one and repetition rules. Accomplishes the task well.

What makes this counting book stand out is the three dimensional ladybugs. Firmly placed in a wide base within show more each page, they cannot be dislodged without serious physical damage to the book. They are baby friendly and make the counting feel more real.

Kid Perspective:
Both of my children, really like this book. The elder spawn believes that the frog is amazing, the grasshopper, the .. Well everything..

This is one of many counting books that he owns, so he could never advise if it is superior to any other, but it is obvious that he digs it.

He has physically beaten this book up, folding it in half backwards and it still survives.

The younger spawn believes this book tastes good.


Parent perspective:
Why.. Seriously why... More than half of the ladybugs make off with predators. Witness the above image. Two little ladybugs, plus one frog equals lunch.

Yet somehow, the final page of the book has all of the creatures and all of the ladybugs home safe and sound. This sounds like some ladybug blackmarket meat ring. This book has frightening lessons to be learned.

It is cute though, and it is well built, and the kids like it. So I suppose the darker plot should remain hidden till they are old enough to turn goth and appreciate the dark humor contained. show less

This is a counting book for little kids. It counts down from 10 to 1 as ladybugs disappear in various ways which tend to involve meeting predators. A poem counts down and rhymes the numbers, predator names, and various mishaps that the lady bugs meet. On the last page, they all appear back on the page with no explanation, and it says they are "Home". I always took this as a metaphor for the afterlife, like now all the ladybugs are dead, dead, dead, but I think it is just a coincidence of a show more kids book that reads as creepy for adults.

This is good for having a tactile feature that is also durable. The lady bugs, which you can see peeking through on the cover image, are hefty plastic lady bugs which are glued to the pages throughout the book. Early pages have holes cut, so the lady bugs peek through, and then as they disappear, eventually there is just the last little lady bug glued to the page. The bugs do not fall off. Each page is actually two stiff sheets (it's a board book) glued together, and each lady bug has a wide piece of plastic as a base which is sandwiched between the pages. Toddlers can go nuts trying to scrape the lady bugs off, and they will not be able to. show less

My girls liked this book more than I expected. It's actually very simple. Each page has ladybugs, and one by one they leave, so subsequent pages have fewer and fewer ladybugs, until one remains. Fortunately, a breeze comes along and blows the lonely one home, where all the other ladybugs are waiting. (Funny story, when we first read this, I thought the ladybugs were eaten, because they always meet another animal and then disappear. Turns out, the other animals are all just waiting at the show more end, too. They must be friends.) The winning feature are the ladybugs, which are small plastic figurines glued to the page that the young audience can touch. Each page has enough holes to accommodate the number of ladybugs required for that page, so as the ladybugs disappear, less and less holes are present. A clever construction that really works for my girls. As for the text, the story is told in rhyming phrases, with one catch - the rhyming word, which is always a number, is told on the following page. The verbal clue combines with the counting down to help children figure out the correct number. Therefore, in addition to the fun my kids have with grabbing the ladybugs and watching them disappear, they also like the counting element, because they love numbers right now. With all of these features, this book is a definite winner from our children's books collection. show less

An adorable counting book with a fun, non-cliched rhyme about ladybugs. Little readers will love the large ladybugs that burst out of every page as the rhyme counts down. The beautiful illustrations of animals and nature are also a plus. This is one of my two year old son's favorite books.