Counting and Early Math Picture Books

Counting sticks when there is something to count and a reason to care. A missing button. Ducks in groups. Dots that turn into a picture. A worksheet can wait.

Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 and Ten Black Dots are the youngest books here. Pete the Cat and Quack and Count still feel like stories. Measuring Penny and The Grapes of Math are for the kindergarten child who likes a puzzle and will tolerate a few more words.

Let them answer before you do. If they get it wrong, point and count together instead of correcting from across the couch. The book is the game.

One math book in the stack is enough. Put a regular story next to it so reading does not start to feel like school.

Count real things after you close the book. Buttons on a shirt, ducks in the tub, crackers on a plate. The page was the practice. The snack is where they find out they can do it without you pointing.

Books in this list

Each pick includes a summary and a link to Amazon.

Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3

by Bill Martin Jr.

Numbers race up an apple tree the way the letters race up the coconut tree in the other book. The rhyme is the hook, and counting to twenty or a hundred becomes a chant. Stop at whatever number your child still enjoys. You can finish the climb tomorrow. Clap the numbers they know and whisper the ones that are still new.

Get a copy

Amazon

Ten Black Dots

by Donald Crews

One dot becomes a sun, two dots become eyes, and the pictures are bold enough to see from a lap. After you read it, they can make their own dot picture on scrap paper. That extra step is what makes the count stay. Ten dots is the whole job. Do not add a worksheet after.

Get a copy

Amazon

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

by Eric Litwin

Pete's favorite shirt loses its buttons one by one, and he keeps singing. The subtraction is the plot: four, then three, then two. Children who already like Pete will do the math just to keep the song going. Sing the countdown. Four buttons, then three, and he never complains.

Get a copy

Amazon

Quack and Count

by Keith Baker

Seven ducklings split into different groups, and each page shows a new way to add up to seven. The pictures are soft and the text is short. Count the ducks with a finger so the combinations are visible, not just said. Seven ducks, split a new way each time. Let their finger do the adding.

Get a copy

Amazon

Measuring Penny

by Loreen Leedy

Lisa has a homework assignment to measure something, and she measures her dog in dog biscuits, inches, and minutes. It is a story about a project, with the math drawn on the pages. Better for a child in the first years of school than for a toddler. Measure one thing in the room after you finish, the way Lisa does.

Get a copy

Amazon

The Grapes of Math

by Greg Tang

Riddles ask you to count a picture without counting every single grape or fish. The tricks are clever, and some of them need an adult the first time. Do one riddle a night. Doing the whole book at once wears the fun out. One riddle, then stop while they still want another.

Get a copy

Amazon

Counting and Early Math Picture Books