Numeralia — Jorge Lujan

From the first page of this unusual and original collaboration between Jorge Luján and Isol, it's clear that this is not just another counting book. Whether they are discovering that three is for bedtime kisses, or that five is for secret creatures hiding in a glove, children will delight in the poetic and sometimes surreal text. The illustrations by Isol, winner of the 2012 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, depict a world at once familiar and strange, a place where the three musketeers can suddenly become six and the ugly duckling is not so ugly after all. This book presents children with the opportunity to go beyond simply learning to count from zero to ten. It encourages very young children (and older ones as well) to create their own meanings and make their own connections between the text and the art.