Roar: a Noisy Counting Book by Pamela Edwards (2000)

    A baby lion cub can't figure out why none of the animals he roars at will play with him, until he comes across 9 more roaring yellow cubs who don't find him scary at all.

    This books has some wonderful opportunities for Print Motivation and to engage children in the story - each double-page spread features animals for them to recognize as well as a color and number for them to identify.  The lion cub roars all of his requests for someone with whom to play, and the kids have fun helping him roar.

    Questions like "Why are all the animals running away from him?" and "Why do you think they don't want to play with him?" are excellent dialogic reading examples for adults with preschool-aged children, along with the message, "Asking children questions that help them think about the story encourages their critical thinking and gets them more interested in the story itself."  For toddlers, I told the adults, "Giving kids the chance to identify and name things like colors or numbers or animals that they know reinforces their vocabulary and helps get them more interested in stories."  (toddler and preschool)

- Natasha Forrester