Your kids and grandkids will love this book

Children’s books these days are amazing, with great stories and awesome illustrations. And Beth Rand of Peaks Island has mastered both.

Beth’s new book, 1 – 2 – 3 Gulls, published by Islandport Press,is a “counting book.” That makes it perfect for my 2 and 4 year old granddaughters (don’t tell them because we’ll probably give them the book for Christmas).

From 1 to 10, Beth illustrates each number. I liked them all, my favorite being the five mugs of cocoa under blue skies. The 10 snowballs in the fight are also entertaining. And after they get to the number 10, Beth takes the kids right to fifty snowflakes and 100 stars. Our four-year-old granddaughter can actually count to 100, so she’ll be really focused on counting each and every one of those stars.

I think young kids of all ages will love this book.

Seagulls are featured in each illustration and they are very funny. At the end of the book, the  gulls fall asleep on a moonlit night.

And I appreciated this, on the back cover: Enjoying winter is as easy as 1, 2, 3! Don’t we wish!

As a kid Beth, whose dad was a Navy dentist, lived in quite a few places including Sicily. But once she graduated from the University of Maine, this has been her home. She’s a self-taught illustrator, which really amazes me.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.