“The Count” is part of a recent Sesame Street board book series called “Sesame Street Friends” (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2020) where each character gets their own book.
Read on for the full “The Count” review, or scroll to the bottom of this post for simple vegan ratings.
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Quick Synopsis
“The Count” introduces us to Count von Count, a character from Sesame Street. We learn that the Count loves counting, he loves bats, he laughs “ah, ah, ah!” when he counts, and we get to see him count several objects and animals.
We also see The Count hanging out with Cookie Monster and then Elmo, and then with a group of ten buddies from Sesame Street.
Is “The Count” by Andrea Posner-Sanchez Vegan-Friendly?
“The Count” is almost totally vegan-friendly. The Count counts three candles on a vanilla cupcake. I don’t consider this an issue because vegan cupcakes are so common these days.
The one issue I found is in the spread where the Count counts beach balls with Cookie Monster. There are two seashells and one starfish – on the sand.
Starfish, also known as sea stars, are technically animals. Specifically, they are marine animals who can only breathe underwater. The starfish in “The Count” is dead. It actually looks like they photographed a real dead sea star for the image.
Anti-speciesist reading
There are some subtle strains of speciesism in “The Count,” but not enough that I wouldn’t let my kid read it. I do actually like this book, but here are things I noticed reading it through an anti-speciesist lens.
Dead Bodies as Motifs
First, of course, there’s the dead starfish. This could be down to ignorance, but it seems the author considers a sea star more of a decorative beach element than a living animal.
There’s a similar treatment of fish skeletons as “trash” motif in the “Oscar” book from this same series.
Counting Objects
A subtler but more pervasive issue is that The Count often counts groups of nameless animals who seem to be on equal footing as alarm clocks and candles.
In the book, the Count starts out counting two unnamed bats, though I know from the Sesame Street show that several of the bats do have names – off the top of my head, I know one is called Sasha.
We’re then asked, what should the Count count now? There are candles, then four nameless penguins, beach balls, and then several nameless chickens.
The animals become counting objects rather than subjects. I’m left wondering, would he count nameless humans in the same way?
At the end of the book, the Count is shown with his friends, and the book asks, can you count them all? But these are all famous characters with known individual identities and it feels a little different.
Graphic Design
This entire Sesame Street Friends series has excellent graphic design. Every spread is eye candy, with crisp photographs of muppets and other props set in a world of bold colors and fun, clear typography.
On the left side of the cover is a column with symbols representing different Sesame Street characters. The symbol for whoever is the star of that book is shown at the top. We had fun as a family trying to guess who each symbol referred to.
Final Thoughts
The Count is my 2.5 year old’s favorite Sesame Street character and this book gets taken out fairly often. There’s a nice balance of pages with counting vs. pages without counting.
Topics you can riff on in this book depending on where your kid is at, include but are not limited to vampire teeth, the game hopscotch, the concept of “happy,” alarm clocks, facial hair, the Count’s outfits, bats, recognizing other Sesame Street characters, cupcakes, candles, penguins, chickens, cheerleading pom poms, beach balls, shells, sea stars, and of course, counting.
Despite the minor issues mentioned above, I recommend this book for any fan of the Count.
Order “The Count” from Bookshop.org.
Order “The Count” from Amazon.
“The Count” by Andrea Posner-Sanchez
Vegan rating: B
Anti-speciesist rating: B
Overall rating: B+