Oakley the Squirrel: Camping 1 2 3! A Nutty Numbers Book

Youngsters previously encountered Oakley in Oakley the Squirrel: The Search for Z: A Nutty Alphabet Book, Now, he and three unnamed friends, one of them a chipmunk, are on their summer holidays, and they have elected to go on a camping trip. Though they drive to the campground hauling a vintage camper trailer behind their equally vintage car, they elect to sleep in a tent. Their time in the campground is filled with fun activities, including barbequing nuts, playing ball games in the park, building sand castles on the beach, fishing at the lake, chopping logs for a campfire and roasting marshmallows.

As the subtitle of Oakley the Squirrel: Camping 1 2 3! A Nutty Numbers Book indicates, this board book is a counting book, one that deals with the numbers from 1-10. Author and photographer Nancy Rose has again created a series of dioramas filled with appropriately sized items with which these members of the Sciuridae family can interact. Beginning with 1, the text of each spread consists of a single sentence that clearly indicates what the child is to count. (1 red and white CAMPER with an awning for shade.) The text is actually delivered via rhyming couplets with the rhyme being completed by the text of the next even number. (2 blue and white COOLERS filled with food that they have made.)

The book’s last four pages serve as a counting review with Rose taking an old time photo album approach. Each of the 10 “photos”, which are “held” in place by black mounting corners (Old enough to remember them?), contains only labeled images of the to-be-counted objects. (SEVEN NUTS)

Rose’s dioramas are bursting with small details that youngsters can explore on their rereadings. For example, on the 10 TOASTED MARSHMALLOWS and a song before sleep spread, a guitar for the sing-a-long rests against a picnic table on top of which can be seen a box labeled “Milk Chocolate” and another box with the wording “Graham Crackers Squirrel Tested”. S’mores, anyone?

Oakley the Squirrel: Camping 1 2 3! A Nutty Numbers Book is a worthy addition to home collections and to libraries serving this age group. In addition to acting as a teaching tool in assisting children in learning to count, the book’s contents, which involve numerous activities, can be used as discussion starters. Whereas Oakley was the only character in the earlier alphabet book, he shares the stage with three other nameless rodents in the counting book, a situation that could create reader distance.