It’s Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday! 
I recently read this very exciting numbers book to my class: How Many Jelly Beans? A Giant Book of Giant Numbers written by Andrea Menotti and illustrated by Yancey Labat (published 2012)
Two siblings explore large numbers while talking about how many jelly beans they would like or might be able to eat. (1 000 in a year seems doable suddenly when spread across a yearly calendar = just 2 or 3 a day) The jelly beans are visually displayed on each page – 10, then 20, then 25, 50 . . . 100, 1 000, 10 000, 1 000 000!! Every time the number gets larger, the jellybeans on the page get smaller. Such fun! Especially the last fold out that really does show a million jellybeans. My kids all got up and gawked and oohed and ahed. It was a “math aha” moment. “So that’s what a million looks like!”
Sharing this with my class got me thinking about what beginning number books have been recently released to share with younger children. I remember that my own children used to love counting and number books and I have been planning to add more of these titles to our buddy reading collection for when the Kindergarten class comes up to read with us. Children love to count together and explore numbers. At my public library I was lucky enough to find . .
Baby Bear Counts One by Ashley Wolff (published 2013)
This title blurs fiction and nonfiction but I am including it here because it is such a delightful title. A beautiful counting book about forest animals preparing for the winter. Colourful pages with perfect counting opportunities. One woodpecker. Two squirrels. Three beavers. Four . . .
Numbers Everywhere by Elliot Kaufman (published 2013)
Are there numbers everywhere we look? This book shows us that there are – some in print, some in shapes, some in nature. Photographs of numbers everywhere in our world. Would inspire a number finding walk!
1 cookie, 2 chairs, 3 Pears: Numbers Everywhere (A Clever Concept Book) by Jane Brocket (published 2013)
Count from 1 to 20 via bright and colourful photographs of everyday objects – some we encounter often and some more unusual. I like the way numbers are grouped to help us associate counting strategies (“Five is useful for counting how many toes on a foot“) Will invite lots of counting and grouping objects found on each page.
Thanks to Alyson from Kid Lit Frenzy for the inspiration to read and share more nonfiction picture books in 2014!
My goal is to read 65 nonfiction picture books for 2014. Progress: 67/65 complete!
There's a Book for That 
I saw on Goodreads you had gone on a number kick! Thanks for posting all of them together. Hope the week is going ok!!!
Sometimes one book leads to another and another and another . . . Kind of like math even describing this 🙂
I put How Many Jelly Beans on my list, Carrie, and as for counting books, I just found Mac Barnett’s Count The Monkeys for my youngest granddaughter at Christmas. It’s a counting book, but with silly surprises on every page. Thanks for your titles too, good to see new ones.
I LOVE Count the Monkeys! It is one of our favourite read alouds of the year! So much fun. How Many Jelly Beans? is lots of fun as well.
I read Millions Billions Trillions to help my son try to understand big numbers, but I’m not sure it made much of an impact. We’re going to have to try the Jelly Bean book.
It is great to get them interested – I think sampling jelly beans as you read might help as well!
Oh boy! Two new titles for me to find. Numbers Everywhere and 1 Cookie, 2 Chairs, 3 Pears Thanks Carrie. You always find the neatest books.
Thanks so much Margie. These are perfect for our younger readers.
Great theme topic to gather books around – numbers!! Baby Bear is so cute. 🙂
I love these Baby Bear titles. There is one about colours too.
I love books that connect to any kind of math so I’ve added these to my wish list. Have you seen Infinity and Me by Kate Hosford?
Yes. I bought it in fact. It is a great one!
I’m not very much into concept books, but there are a few brilliant ones that are not to be missed. Perhaps if I have another youngling again, then I’d have to pay closer attention to this genre. I love ABC books though – especially the strangely-crafted ones.
I agree – these titles are fantastic for the little ones.