The Numbers Dance: A Counting ComedyPaperback, 1 September 2005

Twirling and whirling, zigging and zagging, numerals dance across the pages, enticing children to play with numbers and develop a better understanding of numeric values in this fun and informative comic approach. Three groups of numerals make mightily concerted attempts to maintain the quirks of their distinct personalities in the face of persistent peer pressure. The irascible 1, 2, 3, and 4, though frail and wiry, would like to impose their ballroom dance style on the robust 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. 5 and 6 cannot help reverting to raucous jazz dancing, no matter how hard they sportingly try to conform, and 7-10 don't see the point of being anything but what they truly are--western line dancers. Scuffles, rumbles, round-ups, and coercions ensue until 1-4 have their way and 5-10 go back to dancing like they want to, again! The book's rousing, impeccably-metered rhymes provide the cadence of each dance style, and the spare accompanying art lends a clean energy to the numerals' challenge to accept each other as they are.