Title: Knots on a Counting Rope Author: Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault Illustrator: Ted Rand Average number of words per page: between 25 and 50 STORY: One reader has rated this story Average story rating: 9.6/10.0 ILLUSTRATIONS: One reader has rated the illustrations. Average illustration rating: 9.8/10.0

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Story Rating 9.6 out of a possible 10.0

Book review by: Bill Chapman age: 36 Review submitted on 03/22/2001 at 22:20:53

Illustrations Rating 9.8 out of a possible 10.0

Bill Chapman writes the following about Knots on a Counting Rope :

A beautifully written and illustrated book which tells the story of a young boys life as seen through the eyes of his grandfather. The story is told as a dialogue between a native-american boy and his grandfather around a campfire one evening. The boy ("Boy-Strength-of-Blue-Horses" is his name) has heard the story many times before but enjoys hearing it again and again. He even helps fill in some of the details he has heard before as the story is told. The story has more twists and surprises than the usual story for this age level (4 - 8 years old) and it is interesting how the details of this boys life are introduced slowly throughout their dialogue. This book makes a wonderful bedtime story. I recommend using two voices when you read it, one for the boy and another for the grandfather which should help keep the story understandable for the listener due to it's somewhat unique dialogue style. The illustrations (mostly watercolor) are beautiful - a real asset to the book. They both help tell the story and augment the native american feel of the book.

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