One Lonely Fish, A Counting Book With Bite, that doesn’t bite

When is a board book not a board book? It’s not that all counting books are board books mind you; it’s just that most of them are. One Lonely Fish has board book thick pages, as well as content that’s OK for them, but is in a big format rectangular book. It’s also fabulous, teaches young kids how to count, is fresh, original and may nudge your young child to a graphic design career.

One Lonely Fish starts out with a fish swimming near the bottom of the ocean. Pictured with them are some coral and two red crabs. As you turn each page a bigger fish is about to eat the previous one and the crab towards the left starts to crawl to the middle where the other one is happily sitting the entire time. As each new fish and number is revealed the pages turn forth in a creative “V” cut.

When readers finally get to the ninth fish they are able to see the previous 8 fish, each one about to eat the smaller numbered one. Readers should also pay attention to the two crabs, who are now side by side and look absolutely panicked as to what they see coming on the next page.

One Lonely Fish is the best counting book that we’ve seen in years for several reasons. Foremost is its construction. This is a hardback book with a very strong spine, thick board pages and a very unique (for board books) rectangular shape. Its shape is further complimented once young readers open the book and discover that each page has a different shape. There also aren’t any tabs that can rip off or get bent, which is often the greatest weakness of counting books.

The design in One Lonely Fish is simple, but it’s also very original with just a hint of throwback 60’s. Each page has lots of room to breathe and allows for parents to teach some colors with the undersea coral. There are also lots of sea shells buried in the sand for kids that want to count some more. What’s fun about One Lonely Fish is how young children will really immerse themselves in the book. Our 5 year old know his numbers, but still liked reading the book and laughing at the bright colors and various fish. He knew what was going to happen even after the first couple of pages but still laughed and does so even after he’s read the book numerous times.