The Blunders: A Counting Catastrophe!

This humorous picture book introduces the Blunder family, a lively household with ten energetic children who struggle with basic tasks, especially counting. After a day of mishaps, their mother sends them out to play with instructions to keep track of each other. Each child attempts to count their siblings, but they always come up with nine, leading to a comical "missing child" scenario. The book cleverly lets young readers in on the joke, as the children forget to count themselves. It's a delightful story for ages 3-7 that teaches counting in an engaging way while celebrating the chaos and love within a large family.

One, two, three . . . Wait, who am I missing? The Blunder kids’ head count somehow keeps falling short in this funny and familiar tale. It’s not even lunchtime, and already the ten Blunder children have messed up the laundry, the bathtub, and taking care of the animals. They are driving their mother up the wall. So she sends them out to play with just two rules: keep track of one another and make sure everyone is home by sunset. As the day draws to an end, each Blunder tries counting the others — forward and backward, in English and Spanish, and even by twos and three — but comes up with only nine. Uh-oh! Will their mother forgive the biggest blunder of all? Inspired by a common folktale, Christina Soontornvat shares a humorous story about ten kids who just can’t get things right, while Colin Jack’s adorable artwork lets readers in on the joke that each child is forgetting to count him- or herself.