TEN LITTLE FINGERS AND TEN LITTLE TOES by Mem Fox & Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

Fox, Mem. Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes. Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc. 2008. ISBN 9780152060572

Oh, for the love of Mem Fox!  While I was carpooling my children into adulthood, Mem Fox added another adorable book to her already award winning collection that I had missed until now.  Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes is a sweet, rhythmically addicting, rhyming poem, charmed by the talents of Helen Oxenbury’s irresistible illustrations.  Oxenbury’s watercolor cherubs are so cute you will want to pinch their chubby cheeks while reciting the refrain, “And both of these babies, as everyone knows, had ten little fingers and ten little toes,”  

Fox and Oxenbury combine their talents to offer a beautiful first multicultural experience for the very young.  What better time to encourage multicultural acceptance than with the open-heartedness of a little child?  The illustrations carry the bulk of the multicultural substance of the book as Oxenbury has drawn four pairs of children with contrasting shades of skin, hair color, and eye color.  The unique features of the children are drawn to capture the essence of the various nations rather than a specific representation.  

The settings of the birthplaces of the children also reinforce their global heritages.  The text mentions, “far away,” “town,” “hills,” “ice,” and “tent” to represent global locations and the illustrations match the text.  The clothing that the children wear also mark their differing cultures as does the mention of “eiderdown,” the soft, insulating down of the eider duck found in the northern latitudes of North America.

No stranger to diversity, Mem was born in Australia, but moved with her missionary family to South Africa as a baby.  South Africa was her home until adulthood when she moved to London and later back to Australia where she lives now.

Although one reviewer pointed out the “misstep” of the North Pole Inuit child pictured with a South Pole penguin (School Library Journal), most critics are delighted with the Fox-Oxenbury duo that “aims a message of diversity and tolerance at very young children” (Book List).  

Mem Fox’s Time for Bed, has been a baby gift staple of mine for several years.  Now I will add Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes to my baby gift list. Strong rhyme, beautiful illustrations, interactive counting, diversity, and similarity make it the perfect lap read aloud.  Additionally, it is a perfect read aloud for Toddler Story Time at the library.  Even my kindergartners will enjoy it when we do number 10 in math.  They secretly love to remember the “good ol’ days” when they were “little” and the charm of Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes will catapult even grandma into single digits.