I fell in love with Schwarz's cat characters from her previous titles, There Are Cats in this Book and the sequel There Are No Cats in this Book (review here) and I was delighted to see one of the cats, Tiny, make a reappearance in this gorgeously (and in true Schwarz style) unusual counting book.
At first Tiny has NONE and trust me when I say he does not look happy about it! Things begin to improve when he has ONE. TWO. THREE. But after we get past FOUR, it all starts to get a little crazy. First there are MORE, then about a DOZEN. LOTS! And soon AS MANY AS YOU CAN GET!
The sparseness of the illustrations, black and grey on a white background, are brought to life with vivid splashes of Tiny's signature colour, red. The contrast is brilliant and beautifully complimented by the minimal text which is displayed in lovely large font.
In a similar vein John Klassans illustrations, Viviane Schwarz is able to convey so much wit and humour in the expressions of her character, a seemingly simply side eye placement conveys so much.
Brilliant fun for kids and parents alike, Counting With Tiny Cat will make a cat lover out of any
reader.
Title: Counting with Tiny Cats
Author/Illustrator: Viviane Schwarz
Publisher: Walker Books, $19.99
Publication Date: 1 April 2017
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781406371024
For ages: 0 - 5
Type: Picture Book
