One Potato: A Counting Book of Potato Prints

So titled, this promising debut work might at first call to mind the schoolyard counting verse ""One Potato, Two Potato,"" but in fact it quickly departs from that model, with the introduction of two large, ripe eggplants, three ears of late-summer corn, four heavy-hanging pears (actually three, the fourth having dropped already, to the bottom of the page) and so on through 10. Then Pomeroy jumps ahead to 20, then 30, 40, 50 and finally 100, employing smaller, clustering fruits and vegetables such as radishes, grapes and blackberries to illustrate the higher numbers (yes, she really has painted 100 sunflower seeds). Vegetable life fairly teems here in all of its seasonal splendor, and Pomeroy has chosen a sublimely suitable medium: hand-carved potato prints. Warmly colored and folksy, yet striking in their subtle detail, her pictures elegantly update the classic look of prewar produce labels and poster art. A bonus at the end is a set of clear, step-by-step instructions for making prints at home, using the ""lowly but lovely potato."" Ages 3-8. (Mar.)