A cute counting story, with some facts about fireflies.

Four lines of rhyming text (ABCB) on each page take the reader along with a little girl catching and releasing fireflies ("Flickering quicker, / they sparkle and shine. / I love catching fireflies, / but they are not mine"). The final page includes more firefly facts.

Illustrations appear to be a mixture of acrylic or gouache and digital collage. ( )

It's a Firefly Night is a counting book that also incorporates facts about fireflies. The story in It's a Firefly Night is well done, not solely relying on counting. The counting is incorporated when our main character, we are not given her name, catches the fireflies. Then, the young girl counts the fireflies once they're released backward, which I thought was a nice way to incorporate another way of counting that was actually part of the story. At the end of the book, there are facts about fireflies, like how big they are, that they are actually beetles, etc. I liked that the facts about fireflies also included numbers, including science and math together. The illustrations are very nice, showing the beauty of the fireflies and helping readers to count along with the story. Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think it could be an excellent tool to help teach information about fireflies and math in the same book. ( )

Age: 4

Source: Former teacher

Kid-readers will count up and down along with the song-like text. Interesting information about fireflies.

This beautiful book will thrill all the little kids who love sparkly things and/or fireflies. I of course used to love both. And with poetry in the mix, you can’t lose!

Simple verses tell the story of a little girl who can’t wait for firefly nights, “when the moon is high and the stars are bright.” She collects fireflies in a jar and then races to show her dad “their dancing-light show.”

But she doesn’t keep them for long:

"Flickering quicker,
they sparkle and shine.
I love catching fireflies,
but they are not mine.”

She gently releases them and watches them blink off into the night.

At the end of the book the author has collected some facts about fireflies that she arranges inside glowing balls on a two-page spread. Best of all, both the front and back covers have real glitter surrounding the fireflies!

The colorful collages by Betsy Snyder are vibrant and magical. ( )