Counting Kitties: Ten Little Kittens by Marian Harris

EIGHT LITTLE KITTENS LOAFING BY THE LOCH.

UP POPS A MONSTER FROM UNDERNEATH THE DOCK.

POOR SCOTTISH FOLD GETS A SUPER-SIZE SHOCK!

NO MORE FLAT EARS LOAFING ON THE DOCK!

Counting kitties sounds like a tame occupation, but not in the hands of Marian and Jim Harris, the quirky creators of the top-selling "toy and movable" picture books, which also includes Ten Little Puppies and Friends of a Feather Picture Book (Eyeball Animation!).

Those built-in googly eyes showing through the die-cut cover appear inside in the face of ten different breeds of cat--the Manx, Rex, and, of course, the all-purpose Alley Cat--on each double page as the kitties count down to none.

It all begins familiarly enough, with the ten tiny felines bouncing on the forbidden bed, but things quickly move to more exotic adventures as the dwindling furballs encounter the Loch Ness Monster, swing from the drapes like Tarzan, and finally sneak into the zoo, where there are NO PETS ALLOWED!

BUT LOOK! WHO IS THIS ... PEEKING OUT AT YOU?

I GUESS THEY DO ALLOW KITTENS AT THE ZOO!

Marian and Jim Harris' brand-new addition to this eye-catching series, Ten Little Kittens (Accord, 2010) has the easy rhymes and high visibility of its predecessors, especially the top-selling Ten Little Dinosaurs Picture Book (Wiggle Eyes), which make it a great choice for preschool groups learning their counting and rhyme-recognition skills and lap-sitting toddlers who love the tactility of those rolling google eyes on each page. Older kids will appreciate the cute but accurate drawings of the various cats--Bombay, Persian, Tuxedo, Siamese, and Bengal, to name a few--which disappear one by one from the clutch of adventurous kitties. Fun for one or fun for a group!