17 February 2013 ONE GORILLA: A COUNTING BOOK by Anthony Browne, Candlewick, February 2013, 32p., ISBN: 978-0-7636-6352-0

"Honey don't you think it was wrong

To interrupt my song?

I'll pack my things and run so far from here

Goodbye dear

I fear the monkey in your soul"

-- Steely Dan (1974)

"All primates.

All one family.

All my family..."

Given that my favorite book of 2012 -- the story of a silverback gorilla named Ivan -- went on to win the Newbery Medal last month, this month's appearance of the American edition of Anthony Browne's counting book ONE GORILLA is pretty darn well-timed.

In fact, THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN was not the only important 2012 book for young people featuring one of our distant relatives to win an award. ENDANGERED by Elliot Schrefer, a story set in the Democratic Republic of Congo and featuring bonobos, and another one of my picks last year, was just announced as the winner of the Green Earth Book Award in the young adult fiction category.

These are but two of the many reasons why this stunningly beautiful counting book will be of interest and value to readers far beyond the little kid audience who will employ it to help learn how to count up to ten. On two-page spreads, it features a collection of portraits of species who are each part of our extended primate family:

1 gorilla

2 orangutans

3 chimpanzees

4 mandrills

5 baboons

6 gibbons

7 spider monkeys

8 macaques

9 colobus monkeys

10 lemurs

Just like the individualistic primates we humans all are -- different faces, thoughts, and expressions, each of us -- Browne's illustrations in ONE GORILLA show these groups of various primate species to each be made up of real individuals, too.

The ten spreads of primates are followed by a spread featuring a memorable self portrait of the author/illustrator that is quite beautiful while clearly revealing the distant connection he and we share with the other primates. He follows it with a portrait of a score of humans in their glorious diversity.

As I wrote fifteen months ago, when reviewing IVAN, enlightenment is running neck-and-neck with extinction. Over the course of my lifetime, things have gone from bad to far worse. It is a book like ONE GORILLA that, through these unforgettable portraits -- and teamed up with stories like IVAN and ENDANGERED -- will help young people recognize what is really at stake here.

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
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