Toes, Teeth, and Tentacles: A Curious Counting Book

by Steve Jenkins, Robin Page

Overview

This latest book by the Caldecott Honor-winning team of Steve Jenkins and Robin Page highlights the numerous strange and fascinating features and appendages from teeth to toes to tongues of all kinds of animals.

Did you know...
a praying mantis only has one ear?
a squid has three hearts?
a giant African land snail can have up to eighteen thousand teeth?

Toes, Teeth, and Tentacles celebrates and highlights the numerous unusual and strangely fascinating features and appendages of all kinds of animals, from horns to toes and stomachs to hearts. From the two-tongued loris to a scallop's 200 eyes, readers will find joy in numbers with this latest book by these two masters of nonfiction. While not a counting book in the traditional sense, readers will enjoy learning all kinds of fun facts from the animal world as they look for fingers and fins!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316456692
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	07/22/2025
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 10.70(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Steve Jenkins wrote and illustrated many nonfiction picture books for young readers, including the Caldecott Honor–winning What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? His books have been called stunning, eye-popping, inventive, gorgeous, masterful, extraordinary, playful, irresistible, compelling, engaging, accessible, glorious, and informative.

Robin Page has written and illustrated many picture books celebrating the natural world, including many she created with her husband Steve Jenkins, as well as her own A Chicken Followed Me Home!, Seeds Move!, and Shall We Dance? Robin lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Editorial Reviews

* “A visually stellar, engaging book of quirky facts and creatures, this will draw in readers across grade levels and is a first purchase for all libraries.”—SLJ, starred review

“It’s their signature collage illustrations that will grab readers’ attention….Another delightful exploration of the natural world from an award-winning duo.”—Kirkus

From the Publisher

2025-04-19
The late Jenkins and his widow, Page, put their scientific minds and significant artistic talents to bear on a counting book that considers the appendages and features of a variety of creatures from the anglerfish to the two-toed sloth.

On spreads labeled by numeral, from 1 to 10, the author/illustrators present a series of fascinating factoids, some of which matter to a creature’s survival and some that don’t. A male Jackson’s chameleon has three horns, which “help it defend its territory against other males.” Polydactyl cats are born with six toes on each of their front paws, but it’s unclear how that helps them adapt to life. The book concludes with sections devoted to “bigger” and “even bigger numbers,” which include more jaw-dropping statistics: For instance, the nautilus’ 90 retractable tentacles help it feel its way along a reef when hunting for prey. Jenkins and Page offer facts in plain, accessible language, but it’s their signature collage illustrations that will grab readers’ attention. Each spread showcases a variety of fetching animals that invite young people to pause and consider the wildlife’s relation to the number in question; headings (“5 stripes, eyes, legs, vessels, and teeth”) make the connections clear. Making some of these smaller creatures charismatic must have been tricky, but Jenkins and Page have managed to do just that.

Another delightful exploration of the natural world from an award-winning duo. (further information about the animals, bibliography)(Informational picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews