A five star beautiful and educational little counting book that not only is soothing for a young child but illustrated so fantastically it will be a pleasure for any sea loving parent to share over and over with their little one.

This lovely counting book features some really gorgeous cut paper artwork highlighting various fauna from the Salish Sea region of British Columbia and the state of Washington. Seriously, McClure's art is so striking and beautiful, I'd love to have several of these spreads framed! We learn the numbers one through ten, then jump to larger quantities- 20, 50, 100, up to one million -and meet both familiar and unfamiliar creatures that inhabit the area. Just lovely!

#123SalishSea #NetGalley

Beautifully illustrated book that is sure to grab the attention of young readers with a curiosity for nature and numbers.

Nikki McClure brings to us a children's book about counting and numbers.
A book that looks incredible. The illustrations are just amazing. They are made with a lot of care and love for nature, I think, if I see them.

At the same time the book was a bit of a disapointment for me as a reader and children's books fan.
Where I expect a book about counting to be for young children, reading this book makes me sure of the fact that most young children won't be able to learn by this book.

Young children learn bij looking, by repeating words and counting by them selves.
And although the pictures are beautiful, they are not suitable for children of the age that learn counting.
Most of the animals are very unknown and hard to pronounce and the illustrations will not be as atractive for young children considering the mild color use.

To bad that this book doesn't fit in more with the age group that is reading counting books in the beginning.

This is the cutest counting book for any child learning to count. Also, if your child loves the ocean, this book would be wonderful for them. The illustrations make you feel like you are in the water with the sea life that you are learning about. You count to 10, learning about different life under the water. I would recommend this for a classroom or for a home library.

I'm very sad to say that I liked nothing about this book.

Some illustrations were nice, but most seemed grim.
And I expected a bit of rhyming for a cute counting book.

This counting book is gorgeously illustrated with paper cut art. It celebrates the beautiful Salish Sea ecosystem. I met creatures that I have never before seen. There are, for example, two Banana Slugs, six Nudibranchs, 10 Sand lance and more. This book may well be enjoyed at least as much by adults as the children that they know.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

McClure’s distinctive artwork pays homage to the ecosystem that surrounds her house in Washington State.

With striking illustrations, this counting book is a fun way for children to get exposed to the living things in the Salish Sea.

The art is really beautiful in this nature-based counting book, and it's the sort of striking color combinations that are particularly pleasing for babies who might not understand the text but can appreciate the patterns and colors. I love the artwork and love that so many unusual creatures are featured, and also like that the numbers go up to a million instead of just 1-10. I wish there had been a little pronunciation guide and explanation of the sea life profiled at the end, as I wonder how many parents aren't going to know how to pronounce words like nudibranch or know how to explain them to curious kids. It's a lovely book though, that sets a really beautiful mood and also introduces children to lots of sea life native to the Pacific coast.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

I was granted complimentary access to an eARC of 1, 2, 3, Salish Sea by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was drawn to this book because of Nikki McClure's stunning artwork and the Salish theme. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest as well (British Columbia) with friends (and teachers and babysitters) in the Stó:lō Nation, so Salish culture is near and dear to my heart. I also grew up admiring all of my mother's Roy Henry Vickers prints on the walls of my childhood home, and Nikki McClure's style reminds me of his, though the mediums are obviously different.

Unlike many children's counting books, this one makes jumps, which was interesting. We get 1-10 as expected, but then 100, 500, 1,000 and so on, and that was really unique and cool to find in a book like this. I will say for the sake of those who prefer books like this to rhyme that it doesn't, but I didn't mind at all. I'll also warn those with arachnophobia that an illustration of crabs and kelp momentarily looked like spiders to me, so be prepared for that one!

I can't express clearly enough how much I absolutely love the artwork in this book. I don't even want to call it illustration, because this is fine art worthy of a gallery and I want prints of so many of them! Especially the cover image, the orca scene within, and the Salish Sea map just inside the front cover. Absolutely stunning!

I liked the images in this book and you could get a feel of what you would fine if you looked beneath the surface.

I liked the comments that were added with the illustrations too which added more depth to the pictures.

It is 4 stars from me for this one, I would buy this for my daughter and myself - it is a colouring book that would work for all ages.

Absolutely beautiful book. The illustrations are captivating and bold. It's important for children's books to introduce children to a wide variety of animals and cultures from a young age and this is a perfect counting book for that.

Love these illustrations! Can't wait to share this one with my children. A lovely counting book.

Thanks for the ARC!

This is SUCH a beautiful counting book! We traveled to the PNW last year and the Puget Sound and Salish Sea were full of amazing wildlife and history. I will admit there were many creatures in this book that I have never heard of and had no idea how to pronounce (auklets, nudibranchs, lumpsuckers, surf scoters... I learned a lot!). For that reason, this may be a book aimed at a slightly older audience than a typical counting book. Overall, this is a great homage to the PNW wildlife.

The negative thing to say about this counting book is that it does rather scupper certain things when it features nudibranchs and other uncommon animals. The many positive things include how it aims to inspire a much closer and different outlook on the world and environment in the reader, and how it does that by definitely escalating the numbers beyond what a typical counting book would have, and in how the artwork was created. To think of how the swarm of birds here, or the maze of sculpins (told you about the odd animal choices), are just a photograph of one sheet of paper peppered to within an inch of its life with cut-outs, stamping-through and excisions, boggles the mind. So I really hope this book, one of many hundreds (count 'em) of counting books, gets to stand out – the creator certainly went above and beyond to create something you might not initially see as so distinctive. A remarkable work, for all its initial apparent simplicity.