Diversity is about embracing one another's uniqueness. - Ola Joseph
While the word diversity may be difficult for children to understand the talented author/poet Matt Forrest Esenwine shares a simple way of understanding with his newly released nonfiction picture book, Everybody Counts.
This fabulous children's picture book was launched on January 1, 2023.
Everybody Counts! is a creative effort by the author to blend mathematics, art, story, and content together in order to emphasize the concept of diversity. Each page offers toddlers to Kindergarten children the opportunity to count in English and early elementary children to learn their numbers in foreign languages or perhaps their own language while gathering fun facts about different international countries and types of food.
This book is an imaginative departure from the typical counting books created for young readers. The author's decision to include foods around the globe and numbers in different foreign languages adds to an immediate appeal for children and adults. Illustrator Emma Graham brings the book to life with bright colors and delightful images of animals enjoying foods from different countries. Everyone sits together at a large table and shares their country's foods. This image highlights the concept of diversity while honoring the words, "Everybody Counts".
Prior to the publication date, I asked Matt to respond to a few questions to unveil his backstory.
1. Matt how did your book come to be?
I wrote the original rough draft way back in June 2013 and began sending it out on submissions a few months later, so it's been a while since I've thought about what inspired me to write it! As I recall, the phrase, "everybody counts" popped into my head for some reason and I immediately noticed a double entendre: that everybody matters and that everybody literally counts numbers. So I think the concept came about pretty quickly, once I figured out a way to have children of different ethnicities teaching the reader, which was using food.
2. What age group are you targeting?I hope parents and educators recognize that it can appeal to a broad age group! Young children who are only 4 or 5 can understand the process of counting and can begin to see how others in the world do something they themselves do: count, eat food, and spend time with family. Meanwhile, older elementary readers, 6-9, can read the book on their own and study the numbers more closely and practice memorization, if they choose.
3. Have you had experience reading the book to children yet?
I hope to share it with at least a few schools in a couple weeks for World Read Aloud Day on February 1st.
Throughout the book, each page shares a rhyming introduction and informative content about the country being featured beside numbers 1-10 in the foreign language of each country highlighted. Due to Matt's research skills, we find out what is the luckiest number from one to ten in the Chinese language and what is a favorite drink in India. This book could be an incentive for older children to research on their own and create their own booklet with researched facts, a poem similar to Matt's ending poem (see below), and their favorite numbers. Matt originally created this poem as a summary emphasizing the double intent of the book, that everybody counts.
Come join your friends and make some new;
eat up and have a drink!
The world is just outside your door
and closer than you think.
You might see foods you’ve never tried,
hear words you can’t pronounce,
you might meet kids you’ve never known, but…
everybody counts!
– © 2013, Matt Forrest Esenwine
Teachers, Parents, ESL specialists, and Children:
This nonfiction picture book is sure to be a unique crowd-pleaser!
Come sit at the international table for a dazzling array of foods from different countries while counting in English and various languages because everybody literally and figurately counts.
What better way to learn numbers in English while honoring other countries, their language, and foods, than through this imaginative picture book! Thank you, Matt, for your incredible talent and The Little Fig company for the publication of this delightful book. experience. I can see why Matt would choose this book to read on World Read Aloud Day.
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Join the fun of reading a range of poetry.
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