Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury

Ages 4-8

Four stars

            This is a multicultural book about babies from all over the world.  They may all come from different countries but they are all alike in the sense that they all have ten fingers and ten toes.

            I enjoyed this book, and so did my two year olds that I watch.  It has a great rhyming scheme that is catchy.  Oxenbury uses pencil and watercolor on a pure white page.  The pictures look like real babies and real hands and feet.  All my kids shouted “HAND!” when they saw the picture of the pair of hands.  It has a fantastic moral that students can learn from, “Everyone is different and alike.”  Another reason, that I really enjoyed this book, is the simplicity of it.  When noting on the different cultures, Mem Fox says simple things like “They were born on the ice. And another baby is born in a tent.”  And she brings it back to, “and both of these babies, as everyone knows, has ten little fingers and ten little toes.”

            This book is not only perfect for a multicultural lesson, but it is great for beginning readers.  It also shows the emotion of love from parents to their children.  With the narrator of the story kissing her own child three times on the nose.  Another idea for discussion would be the characteristics of the different children.  Where do they come from, geographically speaking?  The different clothing?  But I would always bring back the meaning of the book, that we are similar too.