55 Friends

Zabar (Alphabet Soup) dips into a trove of tricks-from alliteration and rhyme to fold-out pages and flowery lettering-in this imaginative counting primer. Groups of creatures illustrate the numerals one through 10, which, when added together, equal 55 and give the book its title. As readers meet ``3 bees busy buzzing,'' ``2 shoe-flies in bow ties'' and so on, a ``Twelve Days of Christmas''-style countdown takes place, with the first-and last-named character ``one worm, squirmy but firm.'' Much of the artistry lies in the handwritten text, decoratively calligraphed in black ink with curlicues and flourishes. The tom cats, gnats, etc., are sparks of color on white negative space: the ``5 butter-colored flutter-byes'' have collaged fragments of butter-stick wrappers for wings; to reveal the fourth of the ``4 nevermore dinosaurs,'' each page of one spread opens outward. Zabar's only awkward move is to try to link the menagerie-the members of which have never interacted-via a single closing phrase, ``Because friends won't all look alike, thank you!'' As a plea for harmony, this book doesn't add up; as a lesson in numbers, however, it's a charmer. Ages 3-7. (Sept.)