One Leaf Rides the Wind

The art is attractive, clear, and offers some surpising perspective changes (for example when the girl scares off 4 birds as seen from above all the action.) The haiku is clear, beautiful and accesible to young listeners. Several have a gentle humor that is really appealing. There are several footnotes which explore Japanese culture and provide more depth to the story built into this counting book, which I think is an asset. The last picture of the book encorporates all the the items counted from 1-10. It is fun to search for them. My only wish is that the numerals on each page were not in the fancy-ish font which was chosen, but that could just be my early childhood education "persniketyness" getting in the way.

It makes sense to adopt a non-traditional definition of haiku for this counting book that looks at the hidden secrets of a Japanese garden. So what is impressive is that the haiku in this volume follow the traditional five-seven-five syllable pattern. "One Leaf Rides the Wind" combines the haiku poems of Celeste Davidson Mannis with the illustrations of Susan Kathleen Hartung, created using oil paint glazes on sealed paper as we follow a young girl as she counts her discoveries in and about a garden. To help young readers to understand that Japanese gardens are places that encourage visitors to look within themselves to find peace and tranquility, this beautiful volume includes notesa bout Japanese religion and philosophy. This is how we learn about the shih tzu dog statues that guard gardens and temples as well as the sweet treats that are part of a traditional Japnese tea ceremony. "One Leaf Rides the Wind" is a lovely little counting book because it does so much more than simply provide ten different things for children ages 4-8 to count; it also introduces them to the aspects of another culture that should inspire them to further explanation (and which even inspires some reviewers to use haiku to express their own joy over this book).

This book has it all! Beautiful words, pictures and more. It is a misnomer to pass this off just as a counting book. It is poetry, it is art, it is entertainment and it is educational too. What a thrill to be able to sound so knowledgeable about Japanese gardens when asked questions by my little one, thanks to the very discreet information portions of each well designed page. The best part was the final image where we could see the whole garden and recount our journey while counting up all the elements gathered together in a single beautiful painting. Don't miss out on this one! It will be enjoyed for years.

Took my breath awaymy son giggled smiled laughedthis book is a treat