After counting a group of 10 crayons, my daughter asked, “Who’s’ number six”. I tried to explain that six was just a number in the counting process. I mixed up the crayons (different order for the colors) and we counted again. I found it interesting that she wanted to give each crayon a proper name instead of a group of 10 items.

I took this experience into consideration while creating Mabell’s Zoo. It would have been easy to place a number on each animal but then each would have a “proper name” in the form of their number. My intention is that a child can relate the number to the animals in the view. Almost like a proper name for each view: 5 Monkeys. Counting then becomes related to the animal groups.

Mabell’s Zoo encourages counting to ten while the large play area and musical sounds make it fun. My daughter, now four and a half, is a master counter. She boasts about counting to 100. She loves playing with the zoo animals and making music. She also has her favorite, 9 Penguins.

Mabell’s Zoo is an interactive children’s picture book that encourage counting to 10. Each view features an animal with original art, rich colors and textures, musical sounds, and a large play area. It is available from the App Store and Google Play.