Deep Down Underground - Hardcover

Olivier Dunrea

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0027328619 ISBN 13: 9780027328615

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1989

Synopsis

Animals present the numbers from one to ten, as earthworms, toads, ants, and others march and burrow, scurry and scooch deep down underground.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 2-- This picture book is a celebration of nature, a delightful puzzle, and an invitation to look sharply at the small wonders around us. "Deep down underground/ 1 wee moudiewort digs and digs/ deep down underground." In the damp, brown earth, ten red ants, nine armored sow bugs, eight green garter snakes, and many other creatures make way for a burrowing mole. ("Moudiewort pronounced moo-dee-wort is a Scottish word for mole"). Young readers have a rare treat in the opportunity to see inside this hidden kingdom, for finding, naming, and counting Moudiewort's ten neighbors who live around and below the roots of a gnarled tree is great fun. Rhymes and onomatopoetic words bring this world alive. The wonderfully alliterative story counts down each time mole encounters another critter, so that children repeatedly hear the numbers backward from ten to one, but this is not primarily a counting book. Other books keep tally better, but this world below ground is so full of a number of things that all but the very youngest readers are sure to be happy as kings (and queens). --Anna Biagioni Hart, Sherwood Regional Library, Alexandria, VA
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

This cumulative counting book has an unusual theme and lovely art. "Deep down underground / 1 wee moudiewort digs and digs / deep down underground." ("Moudiewort" is the Scottish word for mole.) Two pink earthworms "wriggle and wrangle" out of the way "when they hear one wee moudiewort digging." So do three big black beetles, who "scurry and scamper," and four furry caterpillars, which "scooch and scrunch, " all in an intricate rhythm. Dunrea's pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations show the black, pink-nosed mole deepening his hole and, embedded in the earth, all kinds of little bones and buttons, rocks and stones. The various creatures trying to escape include toads, spiders, garter snakes, mice; finally, 10 ants scurry. Then the moudiewort sneezes, the round stops and the whole series is counted back down to one. The cross-section view of the world below-ground is an added attraction--and may serve to introduce its denizens as interesting creatures worthy of attention. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0027328619
• ISBN 13: 9780027328615
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 31