MULTILINGUAL 123

All forms of counting, in any language, start with the basic units:  1, 2, 3…

The artwork in this multilingual counting book features southern African wildlife, and numbers from 1 to 10 and then back again from 10 to 1. Each number is handily translated into more than 20 southern African languages.

After all, without numeracy, how could we ever count our blessings?  Nicolaas Maritz

"In this brilliantly conceptualized book, Nicolaas Maritz is the author and the illustration artist, but a small crowd of translators participated in the translation of numbers and names of animals, birds, fish and insects into no less than twenty-five languages from southern Africa. Readers are invited at the end of the book to participate in adding alternative and additional words or spellings. The illustrations are interactive with the reader throughout, as one or more animals in each illustration look towards the reader. With each intriguing illustration, a narrative conversation takes place about, among other possibilities, the habitat of each animal separately and all the animals together. The possibilities in which this interactive narrative conversation can be conducted are encouraged by the book's multilingualism." ~  Review by  Betsie van der Westhuizen  for the  IBBY Honour List 2024

Includes over 20 languages - : Afrikaans; Al-ʿArabiyyah اَلعَْرَبِيةَُّ ; Deutsch; Français; Khoekhoegowab; Naro; IsiNdebele; Nǀo̰akhoe Kx’ui; Nǀuuki; Português; S.A Sign language; Sepedi; Sesotho; Setswana; ChiShona; KiSwahili; SiSwati; Tshivenḓa; OshiWambo; iXhosa Xitsonga; isiZulu; !Orakobab; ǃXóɲa ǂÂá