Over in the Jungle: A Rainforest Rhyme is a cute counting book that incorporates the use of math with animals in their habitats. I liked the use of rhyming, it helps the reader understand the patterns and also makes the story a little more whimsical. While the math in this book is counting 1-10, the detailed illustrations are what makes this book incredible. I call the images illustrations, but I believe they are actually real materials, layered and placed to make up the animals and their habitats. The effect is gorgeous and makes this book so much more interesting than just a counting book. While counting, we also learn about where each animal lives, incorporating facts and science into the lesson. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. ( )

A counting and singing approach for young children to learn and appreciate the animals of the jungle.Colorful book for parents and children to enjoy! Children will want to sing-a-long to the songs in the book and have fun while doing it! ( )

Over in the Jungle: A Rainforest Rhyme was a great book that focused on introducing jungle animals, but also incorporating counting. I enjoyed this book for the great illustrations and the rhyming patterns. The pictures in the book were made from a variety of materials, such as polymer clay, seashells, and paints. Many of the animals were sculpted from clay, like the howler monkeys and the ocelots, but some animals were made out of different materials, like the butterflies’ wings were painted seashells. The illustrations were also very accurate to what the real animal looks like. I also enjoyed the rhyming scheme throughout the book. For every animal there were two sets of the same rhyming words that involve the focused number and one other word that helped explain the animal. For example, “Over in the jungle/ On a leafy canopy/ Lived a noisy mother parrot/ And her little parrots three./ “Squawk”, said the mother./ “We squawk,” said the three./ So they squawked and they walked/ On a leafy canopy./” In this example, you can see the focused number is three and the canopy is where the birds often are. I believe the overall message of this book would be describing and explaining animals that live in the jungle. ( )

Right off the bat I noticed how absolutely stunning the pictures were! I figured they weren't drawn and I was delighted to find out that they were made of clay. Extremely impressed with the craftsmanship. Besides the illustrations I also loved the extra information located in the back of the book. Berkes suggests how the words should be sung and even explain how someone could mimic movements for each creature. I do like that she actually explains how many babies each animal can really have and how they exaggerated some of the information. Little bits of information on each animal is also included. Lastly I did enjoy reading how the artist made some of the clay shapes featured in the book. ( )

I think this book was a fantastic counting book. The book follows a very strict pattern and rhyme which allows the book to be interactive. For instance, the line “Over in the jungle” repeats at the beginning of every page and the numbers are in predictable places due to the rhyming pattern of the book. These features encourage child engagement in the story. In addition, the pictures in the book filled the entire page, used very vivid colors, and had a lot to look at such as different animals and plants. The illustrations in the book were actually created with polymer clay which gives the book a very unique look. Lastly, in the back of the book there are many extra textual features to further the students learning such as a song, a section about each animal in the book, a section called “the Rainforest Community”, and tips from the author and artist. Although the students who are interested in this book may be too young to actually read these sections, a teacher could definitely use these to adapt lessons related to the book. Overall, the main idea of the book is to reinforce the numbers 1-10 and introduce children to different animals that live in the jungle. ( )