When one little dachshund sitting on a chair proclaims, "I want a friend to sit with me," a second joins him. With each turn of the page this simple counting book adds another doggy friend until there are 10 hot dogs chewing bones, wagging tails, tugging on socks, tumbling with a shoe, and so on. The whimsical watercolor illustrations show the puppies' antics and include speech bubbles with onomatopoeic words as the dogs yip, yelp, and arf until finally, exhausted, they all fall fast asleep. One wakes up, jumps off the chair leaving "Nine little hot dogs still fast asleep. Shhhhh . . ." Now the speech bubbles offer up a series of colorful verbs as dogs snore, snuggle, sigh, and snooze. As the dogs tumble one by one off the chair, the playing cycle starts over and the refrain repeats. Coming full circle, one lone hot dog on the chair barks to awaken the nine companions now snoozing on the floor. With many concepts to explore cluding addition, subtraction, and new vocabulary is is a useful title for teachers.

Ten dachshunds form a wriggling, squiggling pile of puppies as they gather, one at a time, on a soft, comfortable chair. They eventually nod off--then the action reverses as, one by one, everyone awakens. The simple, spare text, illustrated with lively watercolor and pencil drawings, humorously models for young readers how to count up to ten and back down again.

"One little hot dog sitting on a chair..." quickly multiplies to ten in this unimaginative counting book. Each turn of the page adds another dog to the plush blue chair. The wiener dogs play with toys and each other until the ten are tuckered out and fall asleep. The book then counts down as, one by one, the dogs awaken to continue their rumpus on the floor in front of the chair. While the dogs are cute, the text lacks the rhythm and rhyme that would truly make this come alive. Himmelman's watercolor-and-pencil illustrations are filled with lively pups, but even their antics may not be enough to hold readers' attention, as the scenery never changes. While they are easy to count, apart from the thin band of color on their collars the dogs are indistinguishable from each other, making it difficult for children to determine which dog joined, or left, the chair. With the dogs being so small in relation to the page size, this is best saved for one-on-one sharing with true dachshund lovers. (Picture book. 3-5)

PreS-Gr 1 This visually playful book counts dachshunds from 1 to 10 as they gather on a cushy blue chair. As the numbers rise, the pups become increasingly rambunctious, engaging with each other and the toys that have been brought to the chair. Once they total 10, all of the puppies fall asleep, but not for long. One by one, they awaken, and the text counts down as they begin a new game on the floor. Every page has a watercolor scene of the same chair and the changing number of lively dogs. This book will work well as a read-aloud with small groups, though the engaging puppies will encourage closer examination. Laura Butler, Mount Laurel Library, NJ