One little pumpkin shines in the night, two silly monsters take a big bite, and from there the rhyme counts its way up to ten through owls, ghosts, witches, skeletons and one very polite werewolf. It is Halloween pitched at the age that wants the costumes without the fright.

Counting books live or die on whether a child wants to turn the page, and this one solves that with mechanics: a lift-a-flap on every spread with peek through surprises, plus three sturdy board pop-ups that stand a whole scene up off the paper. By the third reading your toddler is counting ahead of you to get to the skeleton band.

Ten thick pages, roughly seven inches square, written by Rosa von Feder. Graded from 18 months, which makes it the rare Halloween book you can hand to a not quite two year old in early October and still be reading in November.