Jerry Palotta’s ABC and counting books have been favorites of mine and of my children for quite a while, so when I was offered a review copy of Mr. Palotta’s latest, Butterfly Counting, there was no hesitation on my pat in saying “yes!”.

ZERO
“This Emperor penguin has never seen a butterfly. Butterflies live in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa–but there are not butterflies in Antarctica. Zero is a number, but it has no value.
Let’s learn what butterflies are called around the world. A butterfly in Italy is called a farfalla.

So, in this butterfly counting book, readers get facts about butterflies, beautiful pictures of different kinds of butterflies by illustrator Shennen Bersani, and about twenty different ways to say “butterfly” in twenty different languages. The book would make a wonderful read aloud book in a butterfly-themed story time. Wouldn’t it be fun to have the children repeat back the words for butterfly in different languages and see if they remember any of them at the end?

I wish I had all of these books in my library, but I do suggest that if you purchase any of them, buy the hardcover edition, or the board book that some of them are available as. I have a few paperback versions of Pallotta’s books, and every one of them is losing pages and coming unglued. I don’t know whether to attribute that to overuse or poor quality glue, but I’m happy that the review copy of Butterfly Counting that I received is “reinforced for library use.”

Jerry Palotta’s Alphabet Books: (*means books that I own)
The Airplane Alphabet Book
The Beetle Alphabet Book (There are Beatles song titles hidden in the artwork of this book. Fun!)
The Bird Alphabet Book
The Boat Alphabet Book
The Construction Alphabet Book
The Desert Alphabet Book
The Dinosaur Alphabet Boo
The Extinct Alphabet Book
The Flower Alphabet Book
The Freshwater Alphabet Book
The Frog Alphabet Book
The Furry Animal Alphabet Book
The Icky Bug Alphabet Book* (Mr. Pallotta’s second, best-selling alphabet book)
The Jet Alphabet Book
The Ocean Alphabet Book* (Mr. Pallotta’s first book)
The Sea Mammal Alphabet Book
The Skull Alphabet Book (All 43 presidents are hidden in the illustrations for this book.)
The Incredible Crab Alphabet Book
The U.S. Army Alphabet Book
The U.S. Marines Alphabet Book
The U.S. Navy Alphabet Book
The Underwater Alphabet Book
The Vegetable Alphabet Book
The Yucky Alphabet Book*
The Yummy Alphabet Book

Jerry Pallotta’s Counting Books:
I think these are all great for primary math instruction, “living books” for math.
Count to a Million
The Crayon Counting Book
The Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar Fractions Book
The Icky Bug Counting Book (also a backwards alphabet book)
Icky Bug Numbers
Adding Fractions
Pizza Fractions
Weights and Measures
Ocean Counting: Odd Numbers (The 50 state capitals are randomly hidden in the pictures in this book.)
Sharks: Big, Bigger, Biggest
Underwater Counting: Even Numbers

More hidden secrets in Mr. Pallotta’s books.
About Jerry Pallotta, who was an insurance salesman before he began his second career as an author f children’s books:

I wrote my first book in 1985 when I was 32 years old. I came up with the idea, wrote it, designed it, researched it, edited it and my cousin illustrated it. I published it myself under the name of Peggotty Beach Books. What fun! It was first printed on July 7, 1986. I’ll never forget that day. The book eventually became the #1 best-selling book at the New England Aquarium. I was afraid that only my mother would like it. Teachers and kids told me they really liked my book.

I really like his books, too.