Counting Blessings by Eileen Spinelli is a sweet, rhyming counting book of blessings for young children. It’s a sturdy board book with a soft, padded cover (less likely to be chewed up by book-hungry babies).
The illustrations of bunnies and other animals by Lee Holland are adorable and soothing. The illustrations take the bunny from being a newborn, to a toddler, and then a kid out playing and exploring the world. There are lots of ways to engage your kids just in the illustrations as they trace a day from morning to nighttime and then touch on seasons and weather near the end.
Counting Blessings begins, as you would expect for a counting book, counting all of baby’s (or, rather, bunny’s) blessings like hands and feet, books and friends. And that’s all I expected. She could have ended there and had a cute counting (and bedtime) book.
But when she gets to 10, instead of ending the book, Spinelli goes on to list so many other blessings to should be thankful to God for.
Because, really, you can’t count your blessings. There are too many!
And that’s really the important lesson of this book. Yes, it’s great to teach kids their numbers, and this book does that. But it’s even more essential to teach them thankfulness. Let’s teach them that the world is filled to the brim with blessings. More than we could ever count.
“Blessings are
like leave
that fall–
we could never
ever
count them all.”
Do you have any favorite books about blessings (or counting)?
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
I just submitted a query to an agency to pitch my own picture book on gratitude. Also written in rhyme. Maybe one day you’ll review mine. ☺️
Sarah, that would be amazing! Good luck with your query! 🙂