View source for Peekaboo 1 2 3 by Gareth Lucas

{{infobox2
|title=Peekaboo 1 2 3
|author=Gareth Lucas
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=A well-presented board book to help kids make a start on numbers.
|rating=3.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=20
|publisher=Little Tiger Press
|date=March 2016
|isbn=978-1848692299
|website=http://www.childrensillustrators.com/illustrator-details/garethlucas/id=1066/
|aznuk=1848692293
|aznus=1848692293
|cover=1848692293
}}

We're waiting for the start of the Animal Antics race and everyone (well ''nearly'' everyone, but more of that later) is wondering who is going to win.  At the moment is looks as though the lineup is a crab and two mice, but more - ''lots'' more - entrants are hidden behind the flaps.  Lift the first flap and there's 'One polar bear on a pogo stick'.  Under the second we have 'two turkeys on a tandem'.  At number three there are 'three gorillas in a gondola'.  You're probably getting the idea by now!  The crab and the mice are still running, but they're not going to have a chance as we move through the numbers individually up to twenty and then in tens up to fifty, and then a giant leap to a hundred - with the way the entrants are travelling getting more and more outrageous by the minute.

It's a board book and it's pretty sturdy.  Even the lift-up flaps will take a fair amount of toddler loving (they're pretty securely anchored - I tested them not ''quite'' to destruction - and even when the book is closed without the flaps being closed there's no problem) and as half the corners on the book are rounded this reduces the chance of injury when the book is inevitably used an offensive weapon.  I liked the fact that the flaps all have the number in figures and as a word, helping to tie the two disciplines together.

Alphabet and number books can be (say it quietly) just a little bit boring but this one is fun.  It might say that there are thirty squirrels in a speedboat, but in fact there are just eight actually in the speedboat (and looking very cool with their shades) with another twenty two on waterskis.  They're all clear enough to count individually and you can even count the hundred rabbits in the rocket.  (I did.  Yes - I know I should get out more.)   There are also little 'stories' to watch out for in the background.  There looks to be a whale just off shore and an iceberg, but there's a continuing story of a dog who was completely uninterested in the race as he floated by on an airbed, reading his newspaper.  Just watch what happens to him!

I do have a couple of very minor niggles about the book.  I ''can'' see the reason for the jump from twenty to fifty in tens: that's easily explained to a child, but I was less convinced by the leap from fifty to a hundred.  For a child who is just learning about number that one is harder to grasp.  I'm being particularly picky when I mention that some of the descriptions are not ''strictly'' correct.  It might ''say'' that there are four walruses ''in'' a wheelbarrow, but only three are ''in'' the vehicle and the fourth is pushing and it's repeated with some of the other numbers.  Children ''notice'' these things!

We've also seen the companion volume to this book, {{amazonurl|isbn=1848692048|title=Peekaboo A to Z}}, which has all the same attributes and is just as much fun.

We've seen [[Orla Kiely Numbers by Orla Kiely|Orla Kiely Numbers]], another board book but Peekaboo 1 2 3 is much more fun.  we also liked [[The Selfish Crocodile Counting Book by Faustin Charles and Michael Terry]].  For something a little different, try [[Snail, Where Are You? by Tomi Ungerer]].

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