Countablock, the best children’s counting book that we’ve seen

In November 2013 we reviewed Alphablock from these same authors and our headline was almost the same.  Countablock follows the same presentation that Alphablock did so well, except this time with numbers from 1 to 100.  It’s written by Christopher Franceschelli with the art by Peskimo.  Countablock is intended for ages 1-3, but our almost 5 year old loves it and don’t get tired of reading it to them either.

Countablock has the numbers 1-20 laid out in a two page cause and effect display.  For example on two pages it’ll have “ten pails of sand become…..” then you turn the page and see “ten sand castles!’ on the next two pages.  When it lays out the first stage of the cause and effect the page on the right is cut out with the number that they pages are teaching.  Once you turn that page you’ll see the written number as it lays out how many of the object there are.

After you get to 20 the numbers 21-29 are show as butterflies, which is character that number 20 left us with.  The rest of the numbers between those that aren’t on the tens are shown the same way.  That is until “100” when it opens up into a two page fold out of dozens of boys and girls playing.

What makes Countablock our favorite number book for children is that it is durable.  Most high number books that we’ve seen present the numbers in a pleasant, fun way, but the book has a weak spine that cracks or fails very quickly.  The spine to Countablock is strong cardboard and the pages throughout the book are very level.

When you look at the book from the side you can easily see what I mean.  The right side of the pages are almost as level as the left side that is against the spine of the book.  There are no tabs to open that can be ripped off.  It’s just big numbers on strong cardboard.