Children's Fiction Counting & Numbers
Numeralia
- Publisher
- Groundwood Books Ltd
- Initial publish date
- Mar 2014
- Category
- Counting & Numbers, Imagination & Play
- Recommended Age
- 3 to 6
- Recommended Grade
- p to 1
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781554984442
- Publish Date
- Mar 2014
- List Price
- $18.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
From the first page of this unusual and original collaboration between Jorge Luján and Isol, readers will realize 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 is a book that presents children with the opportunity to go beyond simply learning to count from zero to ten. The book will encourage very young children (and older ones as well) to create their own meanings and make their own connections between the text and the art.
About the authors
Jorge Luján is an author, poet and musician who has published forty-four books and recorded eight CDs. With many of the world’s greatest illustrators, he has created an outstanding body of work — translated into 15 languages — including Stephen and the Beetle, illustrated by Chiara Carrer; Doggy Slippers and Numeralia, illustrated by Isol; Colors! ¡Colores!, illustrated by Piet Grobler; Moví la mano / I Moved My Hand, illustrated by Mandana Sadat; and Brunhilda and the Ring, illustrated by Linda Wolfsgruber. Jorge has just published his first novel, Salando el río con una cucharita (Salting the River with a Teaspoon). Among other distinctions, he has won the Premio de Poesía para Niños de ALIJA (IBBY Argentina) and has been nominated four times for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. See more of his work on Facebook (Jorge Luján. Poesía y Música), on the Jorge Luján YouTube channel, on his Bandcamp page, Soundcloud and jorgelujan.net.
Isol is an Argentine author and illustrator of children’s books with a passion for comic book artistry, literature and the visual arts. She has been honored with the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for her outstanding contribution to children's literature, has twice been selected as a finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and has won a Golden Apple at the Biennial of Illustration, Bratislava. Her delightful leporello, Tener un patito es util (It’s Useful to Have a Duck), was chosen by AIGA as one of its “50 Books/50 Covers” for concept and design, and it was also named one of “Los mejores libros para niños y jóvenes 2008” (The best books for children and youth 2008) by Venezuela’s Banco del Libro. Isol has also written and illustrated Petit, the Monster; Beautiful Griselda and Nocturne, and she has illustrated Doggy Slippers by Jorge Luján. As noted by the ALMA jury's citation of her work, "Taking children’s clear view of the world as her starting point, [Isol] addresses their questions with forceful artistic expression and offers open answers. With liberating humour and levity, she also deals with the darker aspects of existence." Her books are highly acclaimed by reviewers and have been published in Argentina, Mexico, Spain, France, Canada and the US. Isol is also an advertising illustrator, a professional singer and a comic book writer.
Susan Ouriou is an award-winning literary translator who has translated the fiction of Quebec, Latin-American, French and Spanish authors. She won Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation in 2009 for Pieces of Me by Charlotte Gingras, after first being shortlisted for The Road to Chlifa by Michèle Marineau and then for Necessary Betrayals by Guillaume Vigneault. The Road to Chlifa was also awarded an honour list placing by IBBY (International Board of Books for Youth) as were Naomi and Mrs. Lumbago by Gilles Tibo, This Side of the Sky by Marie-Francine Hébert and Pieces of Me. Necessary Betrayals was also voted one of the 100 best books of 2002 by the Globe and Mail. Another translation, The Thirteenth Summer by José Luis Olaizola, was runner-up for the John Glassco Translation Prize. She has worked as the director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre and as faculty for the Banff Centre's Aboriginal Emerging Writers residency. She is the editor of the 2010 anthology Beyond Words – Translating the World.
Editorial Reviews
Numeralia is the melding of artistic endeavor and creativity, conveying staid concepts with the right blend of quirkiness and originality.
CM Magazine
Luján reinvents numbers through a fanciful lens. . . . clever [and] child-friendly.
School Library Journal
It's an unexpected way of looking at written characters, but one that will make intuitive sense to children.
Publishers Weekly
