I love concept books. I think this started when I was teaching in an inclusion preschool classroom. As a teacher, I was constantly searching out books that I could share with children. Books that would creatively introduce or reinforce concepts that we were talking about in class. I quickly learned that not all concept books are the same. Some are brilliant and others less than stellar. And many times you can have too many alphabet or counting books. Yet, when done well, I always want to add them to my collection.

Here are two recent releases that have a creative concept that is smartly executed.

8: An Animal Alphabet Book
by Elisha Cooper
Orchard Books/Scholastic (July 2015)
IndieBound | WorldCat

If you read nothing else on this book, you need to check out the post on Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, here.

Elisha Cooper's 8: An Animal Alphabet Book introduces to readers to familiar and not so familiar animals for all of the letters of the alphabet. A special pictorial guide at the end provides younger readers and the adults in their lives with an alphabetical listing of all of the animals. On every page, there is one out of all of the animals that is repeated eight times. Children are encouraged to find the animal and count up to 8.

My next choice may seem like a fiction picture book and well, technically it is a fictional adventure book centered around two mice as the main characters. Certainly, it is a book for toddlers and preschoolers. It even comes in an adorable smaller square size. However, it made me fall in love with Ruzzier for more than just his art. There was a genius in the way it introduced counting up to three and back from three. When I finished reading it, I smiled. It was fun, and witty, and did something I wasn't expecting.