ALA Booklist (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

In this wordless seek-and-find counting book, one flea streaks across the dawn sky in a scene portraying nothing else besides a dark blue sky and a wooden trough. On successive pages, as the sun rises, the flea is joined by two cows, three horses, four goats, five sheep, and so forth. As the realistically drawn creatures, all in shades of black, white, gray, or brown (except the tiny yellow fireflies), crowd onto the pages, the scenes become a sea of black-and-white shapes pierced by expressive eyes. Twelve bats swoop into view and finally one skunk, making a total of 79 creatures on the page ich, because of the skunk's smell, proves to be one animal too many. The creatures quickly disperse, leaving the solitary trough beneath a starry sky. The final spread shows one of each of the 13 types of creatures asleep in the barn, a list of the creatures, and somewhat confusing seek-and-find challenges. Similar in concept but more sophisticated than the author-illustrator's Zoopa (2005).

Kirkus Reviews

A bouncy flea (surprisingly not the "one too many" of the title) helps readers keep count of a barnyard full of animals. As the various beasts congregate around the watering trough throughout the day, the flea takes a bounce on each species that arrives. A silvery trail helps readers follow the hops. A single numeral (from 1 to 12) in the upper right-hand corner represents the number of species present as well as the number of newcomer animals. With its seven-word text and farm-animal theme, this is a good match for younger children with the patience for seek-and-find games. Marino's illlustrations are marvelously striking, positioning animals that are largely black and white, with a bit of sepia, against blue sky (that modulates to pink and then to night) and sandy barnyard. While the silvery flea trail will help youngsters identify the kind of animal they need to count, the black-and-white palette ups the seek-and-find ante, especially as the trough gets increasingly crowded. This, along with the additional challenges listed in the back, makes this one a rare counting book with wide appeal. (Picture book. 4-8)

School Library Journal (Sat May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

PreS-Gr 2 In this nearly wordless book, one flea leaves a silver arc as it leaps to the watering trough in an empty barnyard at sunrise. Then two cows drink as the flea leaps twice. As the day progresses, each full-color spread shows more animals gathering around the watering troughthree horses, four goats, five sheep, six pigs, and seven bunnies. All of them are black and white with touches of gray or taupe. Eight geese, nine chickens, ten mice, eleven flies, and twelve bats crowd the spreads in turn, interacting with each other and shifting positions with puzzlelike complexity. At sunset a skunkclearly one too manycomes for a drink and sprays the others, emptying the barnyard. Marino's naturalistic illustrations are done in gouache in this remarkable counting book. On the final spread, the artist challenges youngsters to find the pig whose ears are nibbled, the animals with their eyes closed, and the total number of animals on each spread. Young readers will find much to discover as they revisit the book time after time. Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN