A delightful counting adventure with adorable Aussie animals! Count! Add! Subtract!
About the Series
Fun and learning go together in this beautifully presented counting series One to Ten and Back Again. Packed with imaginative rhyming text and expressive illustrations full of life and humour to captivate the youngest of readers. Children will learn to count while learning the names of 30 different Australian animals! Books two and three provide a simple introduction to addition and subtraction from birth to age seven. The simple reinforcement activities included at the end of each book add to the fun!
Ten Bush Babies – Join the cute bush babies as they jump, run and race across the pages of this bright and colourful picture book. This entertaining counting book introduces the concept of addition through appealing rhyming text and vibrant illustrations.
Other Books in the Series
Book 1 – Ten Naughty Numbats available February 2021: See more here
Book 3 – Ten Lively Lorikeets available April 2021: See more here
Barbara Braxton – The Bottom Shelf –
Learning to count, add and subtract is one of the key reasons little children believe they go to school and so this new collection of three readers endorsed by Australian Geographic will be a welcome addition to the resources to assist this .
Focusing on 30 signature Australian creatures, each book encourages little ones to count, add or subtract as they use the rhyming text and charming illustrations for cues and clues. Each illustration has a humorous twist to add to the fun of learning and the concept for each page is clearly displayed as a conventional number story. As well, there are extra activities at the end to reinforce the concepts and encourage the 1:1 matching and conservation of numbers that are the foundation skills of early maths.
Never underestimate the power of these sorts of texts to encourage our little ones to learn much more than we ever set out to teach!
Emeritus Professor Margot Hillel OAM –
This delightful series is a welcome addition to Australian counting books. The creatures featured in each one are distinctively Australian and the illustrations and repetition of the creatures’ names will reinforce recognition of each one. The activity pages at the end of each one reinforce the message that counting and sums are fun!
Emeritus Professor Margot Hillel OAM –
Who doesn’t love to see and read about our unique and endearing Australian animal babies? And here they are featured in this counting book which not only helps children count to ten but also learn how to add up. The babies’ adventures gradually bring them together to make 10.
Amanda Cooper –
There are many benefits in combining mathematics and literature and the series One to Ten and back Again highlights these benefits. The comfortable familiarity of a picture book provides young children with a structure in which to begin exploring mathematical concepts and make sense of them. Each of the books in this series gives a purpose and meaning to mathematics through the story it tells.
With beautifully illustrated Australian animals and their environment as the focus and a rhyming text that is interesting and humorous, young children will be keen to read these stories again and again. The interactive questions asked of the reader will help cement the mathematical concepts in each title.
The support material on offer is excellent and will reinforce learnings from each book.
Highly recommended for Preschool and Foundation students.
Rozanne Misso –
‘One to Ten & Back Again’ is a delightful series of 3 books that will stimulate the imagination of toddlers and pre-schoolers. The engaging use of rhyme animated by beautiful, colourful illustrations using Australian birds and animals will appeal to both the child listening and the parent/adult reading. Activities at the end of each book reinforce the learning that is already happening, in many different ways, both obvious and subtle on each double page.
Rozanne Misso –
Books 2 & 3, ‘10 Bush Babies’ and ‘10 Lively Lorikeets’, complement Book 1, with addition and subtraction, from 1 to 10, respectively. The double page is again used effectively, to introduce ‘one more’ to the previous total, for Book 2 and ‘one less’ for Book 3. The colour and vibrancy of the illustrations, established in Book 1, continues in these books whilst being wonderfully different as well. The expressions achieved are sometimes mischievous, always appropriate and bound to invoke giggles! It is fun to add to 10 and then subtract.
What an enjoyable way for a child to be introduced to the magic of numeracy. I thoroughly recommend the ‘One to Ten & Back Again’ series.
Janet Moore –
This is a beautiful set of children’s books which will help in the education of our young people.
The reader would be instantly engaged with the books as each displays clear and colourful graphics, a curiosity about Australian fauna and arithmetic exercises that provide fun for a young mind.
Yvonne Rule –
This book engages children with repetition and rhyme. Children love to join in and pre-empt text. It provides a simple challenge and an opportunity for children to have a feeling of success. It is a simple story line which relates easily to small children.
Yvonne Rule –
After 20 years working in a multicultural environment it has become obvious that in order for children to learn about our flora and fauna, we also have to teach parents at the same time about our flora and fauna. These books provide a warm and fun environment to do this.
Julieann Wallace –
Author, Grace Nolan, has penned a fun counting book for children that has a great beat and rhythm that will have children chanting the words as well as counting the animals in the story – platypus, koalas, kangaroos, wombats, dingo pups, kingfishers, possums, black swans, echidnas and numbats. As I read the story, immediately I could see 10 Naughty Numbats being acted out in class.
Artist, Nancy Bevington, has portrayed the animals with a happy disposition, engaging the onlooker with a sprinkle of happiness.
As an educator, I was happy to see “Fun Learning Activities” as an added eight page bonus after the end of the story, written in a way that increases in the challenge of counting and encouraging active learning.
Mia Macrossan –
Grace Nolan has combined her experience as a teacher with her love of Australian wildlife to create a charming rhyming counting book that introduces numbers and addition to young children.
Bush babies gradually get together to have a race until there are ten all told. They include iconic Australian animals such as the emu, kangaroo, cassowary, bilby, brolga, quoll, and quokka.
Nancy Bevington has used soft colours, big eyes, and endearing expressions for all her animals. She has clothed them in nappies, bibs, and hats, as well as giving some of them dummies, and bottles. This looked a little odd to me, but no doubt children will enjoy recognising all the paraphernalia of babyhood.
Each double page spread is dedicated to a number clearly placed on the left of the verso page which also has that number of bush babies engaged in some activity. On the opposite page is the latest addition to the troop with the numerical values thus created written on the right-hand side of that page. This simplicity and clarity make for easy comprehension of the concepts which are stated in simple rhyme at the bottom of the page: Seven bush babies ready for a race…a baby quokka joined them then there were eight.
An appealing and useful book for home or school.
Jill Smith –
All these books are endorsed by Australian Geographic and not only educate children on counting, adding and subtracting, they show children what Australian animals look like. As the world children live in today is filled with activities at school and after and is often fast paced, stopping to take notice of the world around if they are in an urban environment is not always easy.
I recommend parents, grandparents and Great Aunts like myself, all invest a little time sharing these beautiful books with young enquiring minds.
Kathryn Beilby –
There is an introduction to a simple addition sum on each double page and at the end are fun learning addition and counting activities.
This is an endearing story to share out-aloud between an adult and child.