cover image TEN LITTLE ANGELS

TEN LITTLE ANGELS

Andra Simmons, , illus. by Jone Hallmark. . Harcourt, $14 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-15-201867-2

Simmons and Hallmark both make their debut with a primer that counts up to 10 while following an ever-growing crew of winged and haloed children keeping busy from sunup to nightfall. After "three hungry angels munch a tasty treat" while gathered around a giant cupcake, Simmons ups the ante with "Four busy angels [who] dust to keep things neat." Hallmark's wispy ink-and-watercolor vignette shows a quartet wielding huge feather dusters and sneezing adorably. Each spread consists of a large and colorful numeral, while the easy-to-enumerate angels demonstrate a variety of angelic emotions on the opposite page (except for one pillow-fighting incident by a septet of "silly" angels). For those who cotton to cute-as-a-button seraphim and cherubim, this book, with quilted patterns and candy-bright colors, should go down as easily as a piece of angel food cake. Ages 2-5. (Sept.)