A playful concept book imagines salad ingredients as animals as it counts from one to ten: one avocado deer, two radish mice, three pepper monkeys, four carrot horses, etc. Medina uses photographs of actual vegetables set against a stark white background, and then adds black ink lines to embellish each vegetable in order to bring out the animal—nose, ears, and feet added to the radish mice, for example. All the animals mixed together add up to one big delicious salad, shown in a photograph of the salad in a big wooden bowl with two inked hands and arms holding it up. Even those who can already count to ten will enjoy seeing the vegetables transformed into appealing animals. (Ages 2–5)

Juana Medina's ingenious illustrations nearly pop off the page in her new counting book, ONE BIG SALAD. One avocado deer saunters across the spread, two radish mice scurry by, until finally ten clementine kitties prance onto the scene - all of the ingredients in one big salad!

Medina's previous book with Viking, SMICK!, introduced her to the children's book world, and now she's bringing her fresh and innovative take on the concept book form.