kamel622's Full Review: House Brand Ten Apples Up On Top (Hardcover)
Outside our daycare windows we have an apple tree. It is the subject of many conversations during the late summer and early autumn as my daycare children and I watch the apples grow.
I also like to read them books about Fall and about apples in particular. One book that comes out every year is Ten Apples Up On Top. While I don't find it to be filled with information about apples, it is a fun read and we've managed to make a bit of a math lesson out of it as well.
The Story
This is a very simple rhyming story of a lion, a dog and tiger who try to outdo each other balancing apples on their heads.
"You can three but I can do more. You have three but I have four."
When being chased by an unhappy bear with her mop, each of the animals try to scurry as quickly as possible without losing the apples they are balancing until.............a crash with an apple cart a big kaboom and suddenly all of the animals have ten apples up on top!
The Illustrations
The illustrations in this book are very simple colored pencil drawings that are done with a minimal amount detail or color, in fact there are just four colors, black, orange, red and brown in different shades on all of the pages.
While the animals are drawn to look like what they are, they are cartoon type of drawings with expressive faces and walking upright.
The text is a medium bold black font that is easy for young (and old) eyes to see on each page as it is placed on a white background on most of the pages.
Our Feelings
We have had fun reading and rereading this book and talking about how many apples the animals have, what would come next etc. 4 year old Dani likes to count the apples and has learned to be sure to touch each apple with her finger to be sure to get an accurate count.
I like the build up of this book and the eventual Happy Ending as the entire group of animals, bears, birds, dog, lion, tiger, horse and even the man who was driving the apple cart end up with ten apples up on top. The children of course love the page where the big kaboom happens and apples an animals are all flying around the page.
With just 75 unique words this has been a great book for the daycare children who have moved on to elementary school and come during the summer and on closed school days. 9 year old Sammi is especially delighted to read this book to the younger children in my care and they all giggle as each animal tries to balance more apples than the other.
I would highly recommend this book for children from around 3 years old and up to around 9 or 10 year olds. It makes a great early reader and counting book as well as a good way to introduce simple math as well.
Nuts & Bolts
Ten Apples Up On Top was written by Theo. LeSeig and illustrated by Roy McKie.
Random House published this 64 page hardcover Beginner Book in 1961.
I paid just $2.49 for it at Goodwill and am sure this oldie but goodie can be found for a small price at many auction sites or Amazon.com.
Illus. in color. A beginning Beginner Book, this ingenious story uses a vocabulary of only 75 different words. "A hilarious story in rhyme about a num...More at Walmart
A Dr. Seuss favorite! A beginning Reader Book, this ingenious story uses a vocabulary of only 75 different words. A hilarious story in rhyme about an...More at Kaplan Toys
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